Double Agent
by TheDarkShadow6
Summary: Many years after the end of the Metarex, Dark Oak and the loss of Cosmo, Tails is still holding strong. But now someone else stands on the horizon, is she friend or foe? July 15th: Added chapter 19. Extra genres: Romance, Suspence.
1. Pizza Run

AUTHOR'S NOTE: All characters in this story belong to Sega and Sonic Team. However, the scenario and any "original characters" herein are not bound by any copyrights. All characters are many years older than they are in the current Sonic era (the video games).

Chapter 1: "Pizza Run"

"Sup, bud?" said the now visible Sonic the Hedgehog.

Tails, working on the X-Tornado as usual, jumped at the sound of his uninvited friend's voice, smashing his forehead on a hard piece of metal on the underbody.

"...Ow!" was all Tails could say as he rubbed his forehead.

"Hey, sorry 'bout that, bro. Didn't mean to scare ya'," Sonic said with a chuckle. Quickly changing his attitude though, he continued, "Hey, maybe we could go get some pizza to help heal that bump on ya' head?"

"Why not? I need to take a break anyway," Tails grunted while finishing his work under the aerial fighter and cleaning his hands on a grease rag, blackened with overuse and lack of washing.

"Well... I mention that.. 'Cause I really don't have any money on me... heheh," Sonic replied, looking at his normally yellow-furred friend covered with black grease. Before giving a chance for Tails to reply, Sonic blurted, "But man, I think you need to take a shower first, ya' lookin' kinda' dirty."

"Oh yeah, I noticed," the black and yellow fox replied flatly. Getting up from his sitting position on the mobile seat he used for the required maintenance under the large plane, Tails exited the garage and walked leisurely with his buddy back to his self-built home. "You're always strapped on cash. What ever happened to getting stuff for free?"

Sonic answered with a tinge of disappointment, "I guess ever since Eggbutt ain't been attacking very often, and really all the crime we get to fight anymore are just your average thugs an' lowlifes – maybe the occasional bank robbery – I guess people just don't need us as much any more." With a frown to add to he realization of the duo's situation, the two walk without another word to each other to Tails' house, before a a certain fox's stomach began to gargle.

"Whoa, looks like someone was hungrier than they thought, hm?" the slightly surprised Sonic spread a smile on his face as he peered at his friend.

"Heh, I haven't exactly eaten, ya' know... anything... in a day or so," the embarrassed vulpine muttered as he scratched the back of his head, his tell-tale sign of his embarrassment.

"Well then, you head back to the garage, I'll go inside and order it." Sonic gleefully proposed.

"What about all this grease? I've been working non-stop on the X-Tornado for days," Tails, looking at his nearly black fur whined.

With unsurprising speed, the 'blue blur' – in a very literal sense – spun Tails around so quickly, most of the grease could be seen flying in the air and spread about the grass.

"Uhrg! A little too fast, but thanks, Sonic!" the fox looked nauseated and held his hand to his head as he stumbled back to his aircraft.

With a smile that could warm the heart of Dr. Robotnic himself, Tails' furry blue friend replied with a thumbs up, "Any time, pal! And make sure to get pepperoni on all of it, sausage on half and chili and extra cheese on the other!"

"As usual!" Tails blurted, already halfway across the runway. Tails hopped in his now even faster jet fighter (via the maintenance), ready to take off. The the palm trees on the sides of the runway bent away slowly, allowing the fighter jet to fly away to the nearest pizza parlor. As quickly as he had taken flight, the hungry vulpine jumped out of the X-Tornado, leaving it with the thrusters still on, allowing it to hover over the building as Tails walked inside. He didn't even look at the sign he had walked under. He'd read it thousands of times already. It read: "Jared's Specialty Pizza".

"Hey, Tails! Long time no see, dude!" the obvious lingo of a surfer in the voice of the clerk was thick. "Have a seat!"

"Something smells good, Jared! I hope it's my pizza," the starving fox remarked as he flopped in the nearest plastic lawn chair, rubbing his white gloved hands together and licking his lips.

"Why wouldn't it be, my man? Sonic called it in already, that fast sonuvagun! I still owe ya' one after you saved my life from that fire!"

"Eh, it wasn't that hard! It was just a little fire."

"A little fire that could of burned me head from toe and destroyed my shop, dude!"

"Hehe, well, I guess it was kinda' dangerous..."

Scratching the back of his head, Tails sat back waiting for his pizza, enjoying the sun shining through the window. Unnoticed by the usually curious fox, a slightly shadowed, lone figure walked into the shop.


	2. The Meet

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well we're really cookin' now!

I wonder who this "mysterious stranger" is...

Oh wait, I wrote it! I already know!

Lol.

EDIT: AH SPELLING ERROR!

COME ON, LET ME KNOW OF THESE THINGS PEOPLE!

Chapter 2: "The Meet"

"Hey there, Jared. Can I have my paycheck now?" the new stranger asked, walking up to the front desk.

Deciding to see who the new visitor is, Tails looked up. What he saw though, was quite unexpected at the least. Standing before him was a shapely female fox, presumably the same age as himself from first glance. Covered in yellow-gold fur and who looked to be in well shape physically, someone that could definitely handle herself.

"Hey, Jared, who's your friend?" the now awake fox asked the unruly dog behind the counter as he grinned and peered at the newcomer.

"Tails, this is Mary," Jared said pointing to the new visitor, "Mary, that's Tails, still waitin' on his pizza that someone needs to hurry up on! ...That means you Max!" he yelled to the back room.

"Yeah, yeah! Stop rushin' me! It's gettin' done!" said a growling voice from the back that was most likely Max.

Now talking to the both of the foxes, Jared spoke dripping with sarcasm, "That guy is so gonna' get that raise he wanted!"

Mary, now talking to Tails, "Heh, Max isn't the most trustworthy – or stable – guy, but his pizza is great!"

Tails replied, "I'm guessing you work here?"

"Sure do!" Mary remarked as she took a seat next to Tails.

"How come I haven't seen you here before?"

"I'm usually working in the back with Max an' delivering the pizzas all by myself. Max used to do it, but he lost his license for... 'aggressive driving'."

"Anger issues?"

"Yep. But, thankfully, this week I'm taking my vacation, and I don't have to deal with Mr. Angst. The thing is, I don't have anywhere to go, so I figured I'd come get my paycheck and a pizza."

Showing a frown and looking towards the front desk, the two foxes watched in anticipation as Jared walked out of the kitchen, two pizzas in hand.

"Yo dude and dudet, here's yah' pizzas!" Jared said as he handed the pizzas to each of them, "And a check for the lady."

"Thanks, Jared!" Tails happily remarked as he turned to the female vulpine beside him.

"How 'bout you come back ta' my place? I'm just gonna' sit around and watch T.V. unless something comes up."

Standing up with the two tailed fox, Mary spoke with caution "And that's all you're gonna' do? No tricks?"

Putting a look of confusion, then disgust on his face, Tails scolded her, "No way! I'm not that kind of guy!"

"Heh, just makin' sure. A real pervert would say 'yeah babe, lets hit it!'" Mary said, putting on fairly well executed impersonation of Max.

Standing up and taking the pizza out of Mary's hands, Tails smiled and said, "Well come on, then! I don't want the pizzas to get cold!"

Mary, who was now also standing up, took the pizza back from Tails, saying, "I can manage, thanks."

Thinking nothing of it, Tails and his new friend strolled back to the street. But when Tails pressed a button on his silver, wire-covered, motherboard-mounted watch, Mary was both surprised and scared at the jet that now hovered closer in front of them.

"Wait... You have your own plane? And... I have to ride in it?" a surprised Mary turned to her friend.

"Well, yeah. Are you scared or somethin'?" Tails said as he put a sly grin on his face.

"What? No, of course not! I'm just worried about.. how good of a pilot you are!"

"I'm the best in this universe!"

"Well, if you're so sure, then after you!"

Taking Mary's pizza again and jumping onto the wing of the gleaming aircraft, sitting down in the open cockpit, Tails called down to Mary, "If you don't get in, I'll steal your pizza! Bwahahahahaaa!" Throwing his head back in his best imitation of an evil laugh that he could muster up, Mary chuckled and decided to play along with the charade.

She jumped onto the wing as well, "Please, please don't steal my pizza, oh evil villain!"

"I will, and I'll steal every pizza in town, too!"

Jumping into the next open seat and finding the seat belt, strapping it securely around her body, Mary looked to Tails and said "Well, let's do this!"

The X-Tornado began to move faster, Mary took on a new tone as she said, "Take it easy on the throttle though, okay? I don't much like flying."

Tails, pressing a button and swiveling his chair around, said "Aww, stop worrying! We'll be fine!"

With the gravest look Tails had ever seen, Mary nearly screamed, "Tails! Who's gonna' steer the plane if your sitting there talking to me?"

Tails, sitting in his seat calmly, replied, "It's on auto pilot... But if you're so worried I'll go on back to steering."

Turning around again before noticing Mary visibly blush, Tails pressed the same green button that went dim – that Mary just now noticed happened to be glowing before – and sat back.

"Hey," the piloting fox said slightly under his breath, "I wonder how fast this baby can go with that new mod I just installed..."

"Couldn't you test tha– AAAAAAH!"

Mary let out a blood-boiling scream as Tails suddenly pressed the throttle switch all the way up, throwing the two foxes through the air at nerve-wracking speeds. Tails, of course, was enjoying every single second of it.


	3. Flying Sickness

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Come on, guys! Review for pete's sake! Why didn't you tell me there was a typo? Tailsisreal, I'd expected you to find that little ditty there, with your oh so "fine tuned" eye for things like that! Bah, whatever... Just enjoy, and REVIEW!

Ah jeez, another typo! Open Office didn.t import the long "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" right. Fffffuuuuuuuuuuu...

Chapter 3: "Flying Sickness"

Throwing the X-Tornado into loops, barrel rolls and a blur of fast maneuvers, tricks and stunts, Tails was definitely pushing the plane to its' limits.

"AAARGH! SLOW DOWN, WILL YA'?" Mary, being thrown every which way in the rear seat, screamed at the figure in front of her. All of her senses were obfuscated by the inane speed. And just as suddenly as it had started, it had ended. The X-Tornado touched down and braked, belching a cloud of smoke. Nearly hitting the garage, a stunned Tails stopped the nearly red-hot plane and jumped out, just to scream, "Whoo! That was so awesome! Whoo-yeaaah!"

"...Urp..." was all Mary could utter before stumbling out of the plane and vomiting all over the ground and passing out.

Awaking from what was a deep and restless sleep, Mary struggled to open her eyes. Looking around now at the beautiful wooden cabin she lay inside, Mary muttered, "Where... Am I?"

"Mornin', little miss sunshine!" a cheery Tails remarked over a stove in what looked to be a kitchen.

"Tails?" Mary looked over at the two-tailed fox and said, "I told you I don't like flying!"

Now looking at each other, Tails apologized, "Maybe I got a little carried away, hehe... Sorry 'bout that."

"What happened, and why am I on your couch?" a confused Mary looked over her makeshift bed.

"Ya' barfed all over my new shoes and passed out. It took me a while to get all that puke out'a your fur."

"Thanks for the help, but it isn't my fault someone flew fifty-billion miles per hour!"

"How dare you take my name in vain! Haha!"

Confused, Mary asked, "Whaddya' mean Tails?"

"Last name's Prower, first name Miles. Get it? Miles Prower? Miles per hour?" Tails, now smiling broadly, said, "A cute little pun my parents thought up, ain't it?"

"Why do you go by Tails though? That's even more of a pun, and I like Miles better." Mary said as she looked over at Tails with a smile.

"It's better than the doozey that my actual name is. It was my childhood nickname, more of a derogatory term than anything," Tails said as he gave a hapless shrug and muttered, "I guess it stuck."

"Well, in any case, I apologize for chucking all over your shoes." Mary smiled and said as she got up from her comfy blanket-covered couch / bed.

"Don't mention it." Tails said and smiled before frowning and speaking very sternly, "Seriously. Please. That's something I don't want to remember."

"Ha ha, look at me laugh." Mary spoke with sarcasm as she walked over to where Tails was standing.

"I had to put the pizza in the oven, it was gettin' all cold!" Tails said to the other fox as he took the pizza boxes out of the already open stove.

"Well, what time is it?" Mary asked.

"You were out for a few hours. And I was getting' hungry!"

"Wow... A few hours? Really?"

"Yup! Now come get some pizza before it gets all slimy!"

"Mary hungry! Need more food! Nom nom nom!"

"So Mary," Tails said as he pulled the pizzas out of the stove, "Is 'Mary' short for anything?"

"How did you guess?" Mary said as she took a piece of pizza from the box, "It's actually short for my first name. But I hate it, so you don't get to know what it is!"

"Oh come on! Pleeeeeease?" Tails whined as he put on the biggest puppy dog smile and opened his eyes wide, putting the open pizza box down on the stove and clasping his hands together in front of him in a praying position, "Pleeeeeeeeeee–"

"Fine! Fine! Just stop with the cuteness! I cannot handle so much cuteness!" Mary said as she turned around, shielding her eyes playfully. Turning back around to Tails, she said, "All right... My first name is – don't laugh –" Mary said as she let out a long sigh and muttered, "Marigold. There, I said it."

Tails, pausing for a moment, said, "Well, I think it's a great name! Much better than mine!"

"Ya' really think so?" Mary looked at Tails and smiled.

"Of course! It's a pretty name, if I do say so myself."

Marigold blushed slightly and said, "Well, thanks for not laughing. A whole lot of people think that I would have had a more, 'masculine' name than simply 'Marigold', cuz' I like to work out..."

"Neh, I think your masculine, but it doesn't mean you can't have a nice name!"

Hugging Tails quickly, Mary said, "Aww, thanks so much, Tails! You've made my day!"

Now both blushing, Tails remarked, "It's nothing!"

The two vulpines stood staring at each other for some time, before Tails broke the ice with, "Now lets eat!" before realizing his mistake, and corrected himself, "That is, if you want to stay. I mean, you can go if ya' want–"

Mary cut Tails off by adding, "No, I think I'd like to stay, Tails."

Picking up the pizzas and sitting on the couch, Marigold and Tails sat watching the television and chatting about miscellaneous topics for many hours – and ate all of the pizza – before both unintentionally falling asleep on the couch...


	4. It Was An Accident!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I misspelled "lonely" on purpose. It sounds funny. If you've read this story, sorry for the lack of a new chapter. I'm a big ol' lazy bum. Go ahead, laugh. It's true!

Enjoy this slightly longer-than-the-last-three-chapters... Chapter! Looks like Mary and Tail's are getting' a bit more chummy, I'd say.

...Or maybe she wants to chop off his head with a toothbrush.

Who knows?

...Well, I do...

So...

Err...

CHAPTER.

Chapter 4: "It Was an Accident!"

Tails woke up the next day, well rested and well ready for anything, except for what he was about to see. Opening his eyes, Tails noticed he and Marigold were lying side-by-side, his arm over her. As he tried to get up, accidentally awaking her. With a fury that could easily match, if not shadow, Amy's, Mary yelled, "Aah! Tails, what exactly are you trying to do?" and jumped up from the couch.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know I was doing anything!" Tails said as he looked at Mary and put his hands up defensively.

"Well... Heh... I guess we both kinda' fell asleep, huh?" Mary, blushing and lowering her voice, looked down at Tails still raising from his laying position.

"...Pizza... Sleep agents... Grease..." Tails muttered under his breath as he grunted and raised to a sitting position.

"...Mhmph!" Mary, hands over her mouth, began to snicker and giggle.

"What? What's wrong?" Tails, looking down at his torso, noticed a slice of greasy, cold, cheesy pizza stuck to his fur.

"Oh, man!" was all Tails said before jumping up, removing the pizza from himself, throwing It in the nearest wastebasket, and jogging towards the bathroom. Speaking to the giggling vixen over his shoulder, "I need to take a shower. Be right back, help yourself to the fridge."

Walking towards the large, metal makeshift refrigerator, Mary quickly looked herself over for any left-overs. _Whew, I thought I might have had something on me for a minute!_ Mary thought to herself, _I don't want to look as silly as Tails did, hehehe!_

Taking an orange soda can of an unknown brand from the cool fridge and wiping the top off on her tail, Mary sat back down on the couch as she decided to watch a bit more television, when something out the window on the horizon caught her eye. _What the Devil is that?_ Mary thought to herself as she started to flip through the channels, ignoring it. Looking out the window again, the couch-borne vixen noticed the blip to be getting bigger. _What is that thing? It sure is fast... _Mary again thought to herself, as suddenly the blip turned into a blue blur, and then that blue blur turned into a person, running faster than she had ever seen a person to run before. _It's coming straight for me!_ Mary thought as the blur slowed down and looked to be a walking, blue hedgehog. A knock came from the door. _Should I answer it?_ Mary thought to herself as she got up, _Well, if that guy attacks me, I'm dead for sure, he's just too fast... Maybe it's one of Tails friends. I've seen my fair share of strange things around here these past few _years. Slinking back from the door, Mary suddenly remembered who the blue hedgehog was, and thought to herself, _Wait... It can't be!_

Mary walked over to the door and opened it, to reveal a skinny blue hedgehog wearing a Hawaiian-type vest and a lei.

"Hellooo, and who do we have here?" the blue hedgehog looked over Mary with a quick glance.

"Hi there, my name's Mary. I bet ya' lookin' for Tails?" Mary said, smiling.

"That is what I'm here for." the hedgehog said as he walked in without being invited.

"And you are, Sonic, am I correct?"

"The Blue Blur himself, at your service."

It was at this time that Mary finally made the connection. She was at the house of the world-famous superhero Tails! _Why hadn't I figured this out before?_ Mary thought. Friend and fellow crime fighter to the one and only Sonic the hedgehog, the captor of the infamous Dr. Robotnic! Trying not to show her surprise, Mary said "How come I haven't seen ya' around town savin' lives lately?" as she sat down on the couch again, taking a swig of the soda and placing one leg on top of the other. However, she was slightly lost in thought, _Sonic was the one that saved me from the plane crash. I passed out, but I remember seeing him on TV with Tails. I should thank him, I couldn't before._

"Eh, hasn't been too many problems lately, with Eggman gone and all," Sonic muttered as he flopped down a ways away from her.

Snapping back to reality, Mary replied after a short pause, "I wonder where that maniac went..."

"Well, I hope where ever he is, he don't come back anytime soon!"

"What's with the getup?" Mary remarked as she looked at the strange flowery ring around his neck.

"I went to Hawaii!"

"Ha-what?"

"In this other universe, there's this cool place called Hawaii. It's on this huge island, and they have a whole bunch of awesome clothes, dancing competitions, food stands and unique cultures, but mostly good food." Sonic smiled as he removed his lei.

_It takes Sonic to praise the food the most..._ Mary thought to herself as she remembered the numerous eating contests Sonic had won in the past.

"Hey, guys." Tails yelled excitedly from the other side of the room.

"Hey, buddy! What took 'ya so long?" Sonic spoke happily and turned around in his seat to watch his friend jog over and flop down on the couch in the middle of him and Mary.

"Hiya, Tails! How'd getting' that pizza off go?" a gleeful Mary smiled at Tails.

"It was smelly and hard to get off. On top of that, it was all crusty." Looking at his chest, Tails said, "I'll probably smell like pizza for another week."

"Who ever said that's a bad thing?" Sonic added as he turned back around fully and laughed.

Joining in on the laughter, Tails was feeling better already. To his left, Mary was giggling too.

Switching back on the television – that was turned off by Mary when Sonic came to the door – the trio watched television and shared stories, played board games, had wing-eating contests, and just basically sat around and chatted. A few hours later, Sonic got up suddenly and remarked, "Well, gotta' go make the rounds."

"Aww, so soon? We were about to get Risk!" Mary said, putting on the best imitation of Tails' puppy expression, but to no avail.

"Sorry, I have ta'! You never know, might be some bad dude waltzin' around shootin' stuff!" Sonic said sadly as he walked to the door, "I'll be back later. If I'm not, then see ya' tomorrow."

"Call me if ya' need any help." Tails added before Sonic turned around and said, "Oh, I forgot! Tails, I need ta' ask ya' something..."

"M'kay." Tails said as he got up from his and Mary's recently finished game of Scrabble; Tails had won by almost one hundred points.


	5. Kinda' Sexy!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I split Chapter 4 up and this is the second half. Sorry it it's short, but I'm trying to stay around 1000 words each chapter. I dunno why, I guess it's just a good area to give my brain a rest.

Oops, it seems the "lonerly" was not in the last chapter!

I bet you spent HOURS looking for it, right?

...No?

...Oh, good. I thought you were a house-dwelling hermit or something. Good to know.

EDIT: ANOTHER SPELLING MISTAKE!

COME ON OPEN OFFICE!

Chapter 5: "Kinda' Sexy!"

Once outside, and making sure to be a ways away from the house, Sonic asked, "So what's goin' on between you and Mary?"

"Why do ya' ask that?" Tails looked questionably at his furred blue friend.

"Well... I don't trust her."

"What do you mean, you 'don't trust her'?" Tails said, letting his voice escalate.

"I mean, there's just something about her. I don't know what it is, I just can't put my finger on it."

"Well, you have your suspicions. I however, think the opposite."

"...Do ya' like her?" Sonic paused before speaking.

Tails, looking a bit angry, said, "One, I don't think that's any of your business. Two, I think of her as a friend..." Tails paused for half a minute and added under his breath but still loud enough to be heard, "Although she is kinda' sexy..."

"...But just as a friend?" Sonic either hadn't heard his remark or ignored it.

"Yeah. Why do ya' want to know?"

"As I said buddy, I just don't trust her yet." Sonic crossed his arms, "I don't know what it is, I just don't."

"Alright, and I know you're lookin' out for me. But it's my life, and my life is my concern." Tails wagged his finger at his friend, "Remember that." Tails finished his sentence with a menacing tone.

"Okay, okay! No need to get mean." Sonic backed up slightly.

"Good, now off you go."

"See ya later. Watch your back."

"For wha..." Tails attempted and failed to respond, as the famous "Blue Blur" was just that, a blur on the horizon... Before Tails he could even finish his sentence.

_I guess Sonic is done talking to me..._ Tails pondered.

Walking back into the house, Tails sat back down with Mary, who was getting out the game of Risk and set it up, just as she was going to do anyway.

"I'm gonna' kick your butt into the outer atmosphere." Mary goaded.

"No way! You're goin' down!" Tails responded as he flopped down on the floor.

Hours into many fanciful board games of a large variety, Mary announced her need for sleep with a great yawn.

"Ah, jeez! What time is it?" Mary, who wore no watch – or clothes, for that matter, jumped up and stretched.

"Uh," Tails consulted his watch, "Ten on the dot."

"I think it's time for this little fox to turn in!" Mary yawned and turned towards the door, "I had fun, Tails!"

"Aww, so soon? I was about to beat you!" Tails put away the extra-large Scrabble board back in the beaten box.

"Yeah, well 'hyperfluxuation' isn't a word. Nor would it fit on a regular board."

"It is in my vocabulary!" Tails got up from the floor and followed Mary, continuing the conversation. "And I got that game on sale back when they were selling them that big."

"And, I don't think having all those tiles is the way to play, by the rules my Scrabble-loving grandma taught me, that is."

"It makes it more exciting, don't you agree?"

"Whatever! I still coulda' beat you!"

"Pffft!" Tails turned around, dismissing the arrogance of the vixen with a wave over his shoulder.

"Well, see ya later, Tails!" Mary opened the front door, "Probably tomorrow, knowing me I'll probably get all lonerly!"

"I'll be in the workshop." Tails flopped on the couch.

Minutes passed. All Tails could hear was the inane, mind-numbing banter steadily flowing from the television. Getting a bit tired himself, Tails switched off the TV and headed for his bedroom, for a well-needed rest.


	6. The Next Day

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Don't expect any more updates any time soon, I'm still writing the next chapter and I'm not sure if I should introduce some new characters. Also, there's an introduction to some rash language. If you don't like it, learn some internets. And, this chapter was recently redone at the suggestion of a friend. Please re-read it, along with chapter seven. Plot hole's a' comin'!

REVIEW!

Chapter 6: "The Next Day"

"Hey, Tails!" Mary was walking up to his open garage.

"How are ya'?" Tails continued turning a bolt on his beloved flying machine.

"Good. But I have a question." Mary sat down on a small barrel.

"Shoot." Tails said as he completed whatever it was that he was doing and turned around to face her.

"I was thinking. Don't take this the wrong way or anything... but, do ya' have a girlfriend?"

Stunned by the unusual question, Tails replied, "No, why?"

"Just curious."

"I've actually only been in a relationship once, well if you'd call that a relationship..."

"How'd that work out for ya? Who was it?"

"...Well... Uhm... I'd rather not say."

"Come on! I'm interested now!" Mary retorted.

"It's just..." Tails, pausing for another moment, then continued, "Geez, It was years ago..." Tails spoke softly.

"Aaaand?" Mary scooted the barrel over next to Tails.

Tails replied sadly, "Oh, ya know... Had 'ta blow her up to save the world an' all..."

At the quick revelation, Mary recoiled and put an unusual look of shock on her usually happy face. "Wait, what? Maybe I shouldn't of asked..."

"No, it's okay..."

Tails, who was now shedding a few tears at the painful memory, thought to himself, _Why am I being so open with Mary? I've never been this revealing, even with Sonic. Man, I just want to tell her everything, to cry on her shoulder. There's just something about her... Her smile... Her beautiful eyes... I mean, I can trust her! Sonic was just being paranoid. I just now noticed... She sure has a nice rack..._

Mary, who was sitting quietly after waiting for Tails to reply, spoke softly and warmly,"It's okay if you don't want to tell me, Tails. It sounds painful at the least."

Snapping out of his thoughts and jarring his eyes away from where they were obviously staring, Tails assured her, "Uh, no, I'm fine." Tails paused.

_He was staring at my chest a few seconds ago! He sure had a mischievous look in his eye!_ Mary contemplated.

"Her name was Cosmo."

"What an interesting name!" Mary interrupted, saying the first thing that came to her mind, halting her lewd thoughts.

"...Anyway, she was from a far away planet – probably from another universe – and although while looking like us, they were actually plant-like creatures mixed with mammals. Similar body structure, identical DNA, the works." Tails expression turned from sadness to a deathly-dread, "But then, their planet got blown up."

Mary, who was nearly hanging off of Tails' arm, visibly cringed at the thought.

"So, her wonderful parents – as she put it – said it was her destiny to do something... She didn't get to hear, because she was in an escape pod and then world exploded with her parents on it. After a whole lot of long details and miscellaneous events, we just happened to run into each other."

Mary, who had been quiet most of the time, asked Tails, "Miscellaneous events?"

"Too many to explain." Tails looked at her, whom was peering back with a look of concern.

_Why now? Why her? If I'd had a nickel for every time I've told someone I just met about my fun, fantasy filled past, _Tails chuckled a bit at his own seemingly dark joke, _then I'm just about to earn myself a nickel. But it feels like I've known her for a long time. It's almost like there was a void in me... Something was missing. It's so easily filled by her presence. I seem to feel better when she's around..._

_Maybe that soul-mate bullshit is true..._

"Man, I was smitten the first time I laid my eyes on her..." _This applies to you too, Mary,_ Tails thought momentarily, then continued, "I don't know what it was, but I just thought she was the best. Always cheery, smiles and sunshine – and the occasional crude joke... Just like you!" Tails glanced at Mary, "We had a lot of good moments, but I guess our egos got the best of us and, although I think she had the same feelings I had, neither of us acted on it. We were stuck on the Blue Typhoon for days, maybe even weeks on end, with either nothing to do or something of no importance." Tails paused, waiting for the curious vulpine grasping his arm to ask what he was talking about.

"Blue what?" Mary said expectantly.

"The Blue Typhoon, like the rest of my air crafts, has a name to do with storms and wind and such. Nearly the size of a football field and half, it's my pride and joy. However, she hasn't been looking all to joyful lately. It's a fully-stocked air ship me an' Chuck made in about a week..."

Tails suddenly paused again, and lowered his head some more.

"I'm guessing Chuck was a friend?" Mary comforted the obviously emotionally disoriented Tails.

"That's a story for another day..." Tails sighed as he wiped his eyes and started to continue his long story.

"The ol' thing got all shot up... I still work on it occasionally. It's downstairs in the cellar. I'll show you some time." Tails, who was clearly proud of the craft he had created, grinned ear to ear at his companion.

"You managed to fit an air ship in your basement?" Mary looked skeptical.

"Well, it is about fifteen times bigger than my house." Tails kept his grin.

"Well, why don't you live down there?" Mary said. "I can imagine it'd get a bit cramped up here."

"It''s filled with all my numerous inventions, and the walls are steel. And on top of that, it's just way too cold!" Tails smiled even wider, faking a chill and momentarily wrapping his arms around him.. "So, we were stuck in this freakish universe from Chaos Control, which brings me to another long story for another time. Everything was different. Me an' the guys were trying to find all the Chaos emeralds so we could get back home. I'm guessing you know about the chaos emeralds and Chaos Control?" Tails explained, again looking to his side. With a nod from Mary, Tails continued, "Then we found out that Cosmo wasn't the only person that survived the blast. The 'Metarex', were supposedly people from her race turned into robot war-machines. They teamed up with a huge talking oak tree, probably also from Cosmo's race. It's name was Dark Oak. It threatened to blow up the universe, what Eggman does on a regular basis. But, that time, it was way more dangerous. We almost lost Sonic, Amy, pretty much... everyone... else," Tails paused, now steadily crying. After gathering himself, the poor fox continued, "Cosmo gave her life so we could take down Dark Oak, save the multiple universes that exist and all... T-there was a cannon on the top of the Blue Typhoon, Sonic could get in it and I could fire him in his spinball formation through the air... I had to... Use it... T-to... You... get the idea..."

Mary expected Tails to continue, but instead, he began to sob silently. Mary wrapped her arm around his head and allowed him to cry on her surprisingly fluffy chest.

"I was the one to p-pull the trigger... I-I just f-felt like it was... It was my... My f-fault!" Tails body convulsed with each sob.

Minutes passed before Tails stopped crying and looked at Mary very sadly, "I'm sorry, I got caught by some of the more worse memories–"

"Tails..." Mary cooed.

"–Didn't expect to–"

"Tails..." Mary said with a bit more force.

"–Bad memories, you know, I just shoulda'–"

"Tails!" Mary interrupted the poor kitsune's blubbering to say, "I don't mind, alright? I just shouldn't of asked in the first place."

"No, it's my fault. I got all wrapped up." Tails eyes were nearly dry as he continued to speak, "My past is kinda' messed up, if you've noticed. I–"

"Come on, Tails! It's fine! Now calm down."

"Oh, you're right... Uhm, hey. I'll be back soon."

Tails began to get up from his mobile chair, as a surprised Mary asked, "Hey! Where ya' goin'?"

"Gonna' test the X Tornado." Tails said and turned to jump on the wing of his aircraft, still flicking tears from his eyes.

"Well, why?" Mary began to get up as well.

"I was meaning to anyway," Tails shrugged, "So why not? And, it calms me down."

"Why?"

"Feisty, aren't ya?" Tails said back and jumped back to the rolling chair and flopped down. "Well, I have a natural knack for flying, quite strange, isn't it?" Tails, slapping on a silly grin, continued sarcastically, "A flying, two-tailed fox that enjoys performing aerial stunts in a jet plane."

"Hehehe, I suppose it is kinda' silly." Tails began to get up again when Mary stopped him once more, "Well, I'm coming too!"

"But I thought you didn't like flying."

"Well... Kinda' so." Mary obviously looked like she was hiding something...

_Something interesting!_ thought a certain curious kitsune.


	7. Spit

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ooh, a cliff-hanger! And, for your enjoyment, I have asked a few misc people if they think Tails and Mary should... I'm saying too much! Just read it! I had more "Yes!" votes than any others, so don't go cryin' about "It's too soon!" or something! And, I wanted to clear something up: The whole point of this story is to show what Tails could become. Tails does have a strong side, he just hasn't grown into it yet. That's what this story is trying to focus on. Ya see, I wanted Tails to be different than what SEGA has portrayed all these years. I feel that SEGA has made Tails too childish, he has all but a tough side. I wanted to show that a bit more, and a discussion about that will be shown later. And please, do review! I don't care if your negative! It's all part of the writing process. Please, even if it's negative, do write a review so I can make the appropriate changes. Be a critic, tell me what the flaws and the shining moments are!

The only reason I uploaded this chapter and the one before this one was because I liked them. But then I looked back, and I'm like, "I hate the way I said that. That needed more detail. What?". So I changed things around AGAIN. Please, don't hate me for it. Don't worry though, it's final this time.

OTHER NOTE: *COUGH* NEVERMIND *COUGH*

Chapter 7: "Spit"

"Okay, spit it out." Tails said, growing curious.

"All right... I wanted to thank the both of you in person, but I guess I can make an exception, since Sonic keeps runnin' off and I keep forgettin', ya' remember that one time a few years back, when that huge airliner crashed in the deep parts of Mystic Forest?"

"Racueso Airs?"

"That's the one." the female fox paused, "I was the co-pilot."

All Tails could do was stare, muzzle open wide.

"You and Sonic saved everyone. I bet you probably saw me somewhere in there." Mary looked expectant.

Tails kept staring, but after a while began to speak.

"Well then, let's see how good you are!" Tails said happily, shaking the look of surprise off his furred face. Tails stood up again, took Mary's hand and pulled her up with him.

"Well... Okay. I promise I won't lose my lunch again. It's just... I feel safer when I'm the one flying." Mary muttered.

"Ah, so do I. But I'm sure you'll do fine, being an airline pilot and all." Tails smiled, seeming to feel better already by just getting Cosmo off of his mind. "But then again, who's the one that crashed?"

"Fuck off!" Mary tried to keep her frown but was unable to conceal her giggle.

They both stood up, Tails mounted the wing.

_Boy, Tails sure got over that fast. I guess he's used to it._ Mary thought about the events that had just happened.

"So, how fast is this thi– AAH!" Mary was cut off as she lost her footing on the slippery metal.

"Gah!" Tails grunted as he quickly grabbed Mary's hand with his left; a small 19 millimeter pistol was occupying his right, aimed towards the large, open, folding doors behind Mary. Tails looked down to see that Mary was all right, and there wasn't a deranged killer at the door, so he replaced his pistol in the tangle of one of his tails.

"Uh... Sorry for the alarm, I just... Fell..." Mary took upon herself a sheepish frown.

"It's okay, as long as you aren't hurt or anything." Tails grabbed her other hand with his now free one.

Mary expected to just leap into the cockpit, but as Tails pulled her up, she couldn't help but notice Tails was looking into her eyes as he did so. It was a tedious task, but Tails lifted Mary onto the wing, planting her feet directly in front of his. Mary was looking directly at him, and Tails was following suit. Tails had hoisted Mary up by her waist; his hands were still placed there. The two foxes stared at each other, lost in thought...

_Oh, she looks so beautiful..._ Tails let his mind – and his eyes – drift, _The light coming in from the window hits her coat just right..._

_Tails is so strong! He actually pulled a gun in order to protect me! _Mary was lost in his eyes. _I really wanna' kiss him for caring so much, but I bet it would just be awkward–_

Tails pulled himself closer to Mary, embracing her.

_Looks like he beat me to it... Dammit, what a time for my legs to give out..._ Mary was feeling a bit faint.

All that escaped Tails was him muttering something, something about the light, before he made his move. Tails tilted his head slightly and slowly moved forward even more.

Mary understood and did the same.

The two kissed, but it wasn't just something quick. They stood like that for many minutes, making it last as long as possible.

They finally broke free of each other, both visibly and deeply embarrassed. Tails was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry, Uh... I'm not sure why I did that... Uhm, S-should we get, uhm, going?" Tails was slightly fidgety.

"Oh, yeah I guess we should be going... Ah..." Mary turned away from Tails, and sat down in the cockpit.

"Ah, well. Uhm, You sure about flying?" Tails tried to change the subject.

"Uh, yeah! Of course!" Mary tried to forget what Tails had just done, but it was quite difficult.

"So, you ready? Or do you need a crash course?" Tails leaned forward in his seat and asked.

"Um, it's pretty similar in attire. Throttle." Mary began to point to different instruments lining the complicated control panel. "'Lessee... The yoke an' rudder petals, nav' systems, short-wave radio, assorted weaponaries, radar, engine specs, eject lever... But whats these buttons do?" Mary pointed at a grouping of colorful buttons near the left side of the cockpit.

"Green is autopilot, the different shades of blue are for changing the plane's shape, and the–"

"Changing shape?" Mary interrupted.

"I'll show 'ya later." Tails said, "And the red ones are for nuclear warheads. That's why it's all protected with all that plexiglass and what-not." Tails grinned.

"A... What?" Mary spun around in her seat.

"You heard me, a small stockpile of atomic and nuclear warheads, for those pesky ones that just won't die."

Mary sat there, her mouth agape. _Maybe he wasn't protecting me, maybe he just likes to shoot things..._

"Uhm, okay then... Why do you need nukes?"

"As I said. I used a few on the Egg Carrier and that was finaly enough to take it down for good." Tails continued.

"Ah! Eggman's airship?"

"Yup. I fried all the circuits, blew a few holes in it the size of a semi."

"Okay then, I won't be pressing those buttons any time soon..." Mary turned back around and grabbed hold of the yoke. She then pressed a combination of other buttons and the engine roared to life, belching more fire and plasma than one of the Doctor's failed contraptions. She pressed forward on a handle attached to a sliding mechanism on the right, and they sped away. Tails leaned forward and pressed one of the "forbidden" buttons, and the fake palm trees amongst the side of the runway bent away, allowing the overly-large wingspan of the high-speed fighter jet to get past without being torn to shreds. Mary pushed the throttle nearly half way forward, just to have more than enough speed for takeoff.

_Well, that was a bit awkward... I wonder what came over me... Ah, there I go looking at her chest again! _Tails thought to himself as he once again tore his eyes away from her reflection in the plane's protective glass dome.


	8. Just A Little Drive

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hah, I laughed when writing the last part! :-D

Review. Now. Do it. You know you want to.

Bah. So many spelling mistakes! With thousands of hits, you'd think that more people would tell me about these things. I go back to my old comment:

"Review. Now. Do it. You know you want to."

Chapter 8: "Just a Little Drive..."

"You're doin' pretty good, Mary!" Tails encouraged the concentrating fox. "And you doubted yourself? Hah! Look at me laugh! Ha ha hah!"

"DO A BARREL ROLL!" Mary suddenly shouted, grinning ear to ear, obviously hearing of the wide-spread YouTube fad that both hers and the human's universe shared. Mary smashed the right foot petal and gave the yoke a hard tug, sending the X-Tornado into the same maneuvers that had scared her before.

"Well, you seem sure of yourself!" Tails laughed, trying to keep his composure.

"I am, Tails! I am!" Mary shouted over the roar of the jet engine. "But Tails, you barely ever part from this thing! Why'd you let me fly it?" Mary commented as she put the jet's bottom close to the water, making a spray of water cover some near-by boats. Tails just noticed where Mary was heading – the city.

"I have spare controls back here. I really wanted to see how well you'd do." Tails was getting nervous.

"I'll prove it to you." Mary said calmly, doing zigzags in between skyscraper by skyscraper.

"Gah! That was a close one!" Tails was shocked at how close Mary took the plane to the side of an office building.

"I'm just pulling your leg, Tails! I'm a real good pilot, I'll take care of your plane fine!" Mary continued her circus act, that Tails usually enjoyed when he was the one doing it.

After a few moments of silence – and more building dodging – Mary asked Tails what he thought of earlier.

"What do you mean...?"

"You know... When I fell off the side..."

"Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't know why I did that..."

"Well, I liked it..." Mary pressed the autopilot button and turned around.

"Oh, you did?" The plane continued doing barrel rolls, flips and the sort, mostly oblivious to the two.

"Well, yeah... I mean, Tails, you're a really nice guy..."

"I do get that a lot!" Tails smirked.

"Shut up and listen!" Mary gave Tails a few playful punches on the shoulder.

"Okay, fine! No more punches!"

"Anyway, You're a nice guy... Funny, smart, a good aviator..."

"What's your point?"

"Well, I do like you, but I want to know what you think, Tails."

Not expecting to be discussing this topic so soon, Tails just stammered a bit before answering.

"Uhm, well... I... I like you too, Mary."

"Good, now that we're on the same track here." Mary turned back around and continued to fly, "Just in case."

"...Like wha– Oh..." Tails got the idea. "Being a bit forward, aren't we?"

"No, it's just a precaution."

"Oh, alright." Tails looked out the side of the cockpit.

"You carry a pistol around?" Mary continued the conversation.

"Yeah, I do."

"Why?"

"Well, I'm a bit paranoid."

"Well, why?" Mary continued to pry.

"...I don't want to get into it." Tails was stern.

"Please? Pretty please?" Mary begged.

"...I was caught off guard once. The consequences were more than bad."

"Oh, well what happened?" Mary hit the autopilot button and swiveled in her chair around to Tails again.

"Since you're gonna' bug me about it until I die, I guess I should tell you." Tails paused and sighed, "I was captured by Dr. Robotnic in the middle of the night and tortured." he stared at Mary with grave eyes.

"...Oh... I see..." Mary looked at her shoes for a moment.

"I do not wish to tell any more." Tails sat back in his chair and looked out the window again, to see none other than the blue blur himself.

"Hey, it's Sonic."

"What do I do?" Mary turned off the autopilot and flew next to the hedgehog.

Tails pressed a button on a small floor-mounted dashboard and spoke into a circular area next to it.

"Sonic!" Tails' voice boomed over an on board megaphone.

"Hey bud! Sup?" Sonic could barely be heard, but an unknown external microphone made his words crystal clear.

"Need a lift?" Tails spoke back into the dash, noticing Sonic was looking a little winded.

"If it ain't too much trouble."

"Get on, then." Tails rose from the microphone.

Mary flew close to the ground, just inches from numerous vehicles on the streets Sonic was roaming around on. Sonic jumped on the wing and grabbed a metal handle welded to it.

"Looks like we have a bit of extra baggage." Tails looked to Mary

"Hah, extra baggage..." Mary snickered.

"Tails, by the way!" Sonic was still hanging on, "I drank the last Budweiser last night when ya' was sleepin'!"

"Dammit, Sonic!" Tails frowned at his friend, "I was gonna' drink that with lunch!" Tails expected Sonic to express his dismay of Mary staying the night, however he didn't.

"Well, lets go pick some more up, then!" Sonic used every excuse possible to use Tails' inter-dimensional transportation device, mainly for the better variety of foods – and beer.

"Where to, boys?" Mary finally spoke up.

"Hey, you're flying, Mary?" Sonic sniggered, "Tails'd never give up that seat, not even to me! You'd had to've had sex with 'em to fly his favorite plane, am I right?"

"No! Sonic, what kind of person do you think I am?" Tails responded angrily. "She's a very good pilot, mind you. And you don't get to sit there because you can't fly!"

"Hahaha! I got your tails in a bunch, now didn't I?" Sonic continued to laugh.

"Don't make me drop you!" Mary suddenly announced from the cockpit.

"Yeah, Sonic! That wasn't a very nice thing to say at all!" Tails remarked, feeling a bit hurt. "I'm already peeved at something else, and you aren't helping my mood any."

"Soooooory" Sonic sighed, then continued, "Guess you're gonna' reeeeally need that Bud, huh?"

"Sonic, you're such a jackass sometimes..." Tails facepalmed.

"Oh, well, fine! I'm not paying then!" Sonic continued to make Tails mad.

"You wouldn't of paid anyway!" Tails shot back.

"You got me there." Sonic said, looking forward, obviously done with the conversation.

Tails grumbled something under his breath – most likely more obscenities – for a few moments.

"Let's head on back, Mary." Tails looked back at Mary, who had turned on autopilot just in time to proceed to double over laughing.


	9. Beer!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the delay of my usual bi-daily/weekly uploads, with Christmas goin' on and all... Okay, fine. I got a Wii for Christmas, that's what I was doing this whole time. The graphics suck, but it's really fun to play! ...So yes, I did get lazy and not write. Whatever. My favorite game for it is Far Cry: Vengeance. I now have: A Wii, PS3, PSP Fat 3.50 M33-B (broken D-: ), Windoze Vista (writing this on it), PS2, Gamecube, and a Nintendo 64 (I bought it back). Anyway, the story ended with Sonic pissing Tails off even more by drinking the last Bud. So, our trio goes to the human universe and buys some more. Them Sonic runs into an old friend... And after that, Mary and Tails do some boring stuff. It's more of a filler, just a bit of funny to get the stage ready for the next chapter. It will be a little short, but It'll be worth the wait.

Oh, and think of the portal thingy as the StarGate. Google Images it to see an example.

Chapter 9: "Beer!"

"Okay, this is awesome." Mary commented on the insane size of the subterranean room.

"Why, thank you." Tails rubbed the back of his head, "Didn't really take too much time to build."

"Oh, stop doubting yourself!" Mary grinned, "This is insane! I mean, the size of it..."

"Let's go get some beer already!" Sonic ran to a huge monolith of a machine in the corner of the room.

"Is Sonic a heavy drinker?" Mary asked Tails, now out of range of him.

"Naw, just a beer every so often." Tails started walking toward the huge machine, "I sometimes drink to try and halt all the numerous thing buzzing around in my head. I usually need medicine just to go to sleep at night."

"Jeez, it's that bad?" Mary looked concerned.

"Being a certified genius with a PhDs, college degrees and what not actually has its downfalls. Sometimes I just can't get some though or equation out of my head. It gets really annoying."

"You completed college already?"

"Yeah, I was pretty young... I think I was like, thirteen."

"Good job, there. I expected as much from one of the smartest persons on this planet," Mary smiled, "What did you major in?"

"Uh... Everything...?" Tails and Mary were approaching the teleporter.

"Hah, you really are a genius. I, on the other hand, majored in medicine and mechanics."

"Maybe you could help me with some of my stuff, then." Tails waved his hand around in the air, gesturing to various contraptions, "I'm gonna' look through all of it today."

"Sure." Mary looked over to Sonic whom was standing impatiently on the metal stairs, "Where we goin'?"

Tails walked up to a panel filled with gadgets and readouts, "Galaxy two-thousand nine-hundred thirty-seven, cluster sixty-three." Tails turned to Mary, "Our galaxy is in the same cluster, number two-thousand nine-hundred eighty-two."

"...That's a whole lot of planets!" Mary exclaimed.

"There's an average of five-thousand galaxies in a cluster, I've found. Cluster one is where the very first galaxies existed. They're long since gone, but in the decomposition of their suns, have created other galaxies. Galaxy one lasted about ten-thousand years, then the sun exploded, and created galaxies two and three. Things branched from there. So here we are, a few hundred billion years, a few million galaxies." Tails went back to pressing buttons on the panel.

"...Well..." Mary was dumbfounded.

"All done. Let's go." Tails said as the large, hollow circle that was sitting upon its' metal base began to glow a bright white. The inside of the metal circle turned into a thick, white, plasma-like surface.

"Yeah, that looks really safe." Mary said.

"It actually is. Come on, then" Tails and Sonic walked into the portal.

"Uhm... Okay..." Mary walked up to the portal and shoved her arm through. It didn't hurt, so she walked in.

A bright light forced its' way into her corneas, blinding her momentarily.

Mary found herself in the middle of a parking lot, a building labeled "Wal-Mart" stood in front of her. She spotted Sonic and Tails talking to a crowd of people. The sphere of light she had walked through was no where to be found.

"Sup?" Mary announced herself.

The crowd of creatures began murmuring amongst themselves, Mary was able to catch bits of it: "Who is that?", "Is that Tails?", "Tails' sister?".

"Hey, you feeling okay?" Tails turned around, "Go through the teleporter okay?"

"Yup, all here." Mary smiled, "So, these people are humans I take it?"

"Exactly." Sonic commented while posing for numerous photos.

"They're not as fat as Eggman, I thought they would be." Mary looked around at the people clamoring around her.

"Sonic!" a news reporter broke through the crowd, "Why have you returned? It was rumored that you'd never be back."

"Ahem?" Tails caught the reporters' attention. "None of us ever said that, and Amy's still here. We're just here to pick up... some supplies."

"Yup." Sonic ran through the crowd to the Wal-Mart. A few minutes later, and a bit more questioning, Sonic blasted through the crowd again, bags of groceries in his arms.

"He-loo." Sonic gave a quick wave.

"A'ight, let's get outta' here." Tails turned around and pressed a button on his watch. A floating, blue, slightly transparent panel appeared. Tails pressed a combination of areas on it, beeping sounds emitted from it. He moved his hand expertly around the floating object, entering codes and reading long lines of text. The panel disappeared, and the same portal they had walked through before opened again, forcing people to step back.

"Don't go yet, Sonic!" a seductive female voice emanated from behind them.

"Hm?" Sonic spun around to find none other than Amy standing in the circle. But there was something different about her. It seems that she had finally grown up – physically and mentally. Instead of running up to Sonic and knocking him down like usual, she was taking slow, long, seductive strides. Amy was better looking than Mary, for she had a bigger bust – it was almost too obvious that she'd had implants – and looked a little anorexic. Her ribs were easily recognized, small, round ridges protruding through her usual pink dress.

"...Amy?" Sonic dropped the bags he was holding.

"Hello there, Sonic." Amy turned up the seductiveness of her voice.

"Uh... Ah, hi... Uhm... H-how are you?" Sonic started to stammer as he looked over the one woman he used to hate with a passion in a new light.

"Like what you see?" Amy sauntered over to Sonic and the others. "I've been trying to catch you for a long time, Sonic. It's about time you got back."

"Ah, uhm..." Sonic couldn't find the right words.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you only pay attention to me because of my body," Amy was standing directly in front of the blue hedgehog now, "Just as I had planned."

She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big kiss, but it was that this time Sonic did not fight back. He embraced her back, seemingly enjoying it.

"Well, I'll be going." Tails turned around, "See you tomorrow, Sonic"

Mary followed Tails through the portal, holding the bags Sonic had.

"Mm-hmm." Sonic was able to grumble, agreeing.

Tails shut down the portal device after tossing a small metallic remote-like object to Sonic. He caught it with his left hand, put it in the spines on his back, and continued his kiss.

"Well, follow me." Tails pointed to a large metal table holding a pile of machinery.

"Non-spring cleaning!" Mary followed him, "Yay!"

"Exactly." Tails began sifting through the various items, "Let's see... Scrap, scrap, scrap, remote to something, toothbrush... A toothbrush?" Tails picked up the mangled toothbrush and looked it it.

"Eh," he tossed it into the garbage.

"Dangerous chemicals, some metal, spare key, magnetizer, hypnotizer, flat dodge ball, PSP... Hey, I was looking for this one," Tails tossed the PSP into a small bin under the table, "Uh... What's this?" Tails held up a small box.

"Lemme' see it," Mary grabbed the object and looked it over, "What's this button do?"

Mary pressed a small, round, silver button and watched as the top opened up to reveal some type of glowing, blue substance.

"Nonlethal uranium." Tails took the box back and put it in the bin with his PSP.

"Hey, my old gender switcher!" Tails raised a large, hula-hoop like object from the pile and pressed a button. The machine whirred to life and hovered above Mary. It began to spin and rattle.

"What's it doing...?" Mary found her voice getting deeper. She looked down to find a six-pack, unknown muscles and a bust flatter than a pancake.

"TAILS?" Mary began to panic, not noticing Tails press a button on the machine again, making it spin in the opposite direction.

"You should've see the look on your face! Priceless!" Tails was chucking a bit, "You're fine."

"Argh! You're horrible!" Mary was relieved that her feminine figure was returning and sported a smirk.

"Aaaaaanyway," Tails returned to the table, gender switcher safely in the bin, "More scrap, old TV remote, a pipe, LED screen, laser rifle," Tails tossed it into the bin, "RC plane, Maunt magnum," he tossed it into the bin, "fork, calculator... I could use that," he tossed it into the bin, " And my trusty miniature microwave." he placed the contraption on the pile of things in the bin, and ran into the next room with it.

"What about the rest?" Mary called after him.

"Just a minute." Tails picked up a few large, empty boxes and came back.

"Put all the scrap in here, junk in here and everything else in here." Tails picked up some of the scrap and placed it into the first box.

"Is a fork junk or scrap?" Mary said as she eyed the bent metal fork.

"Scrap." Tails held up the "scrap" box.

"All done, then?" Mary picked up the other two large boxes, the bottoms of them covered with miscellaneous objects.

"Nope, I've got tables more." Tails put on a determined face and guided Mary from table to cart to rack, filling the boxes more and more along the way.

"Bah, you've got too much crap," Mary complained.

"I know! Don't remind me," Tails groaned and bent backward, popping his back.

"Anyway, what do we do with it?" Mary asked.

"Scrap, put it over there next to my tool box," Tails pointed to a shiny red Roland toolbox, "Put the useful stuff in the closet over there," Tails pointed to an unlocked metal door, "And the junk in the trash compactor over there," he pointed to a big blue machine.

Mary ran around the shop, throwing the boxes into their specified place and then ran back out of breath.

"Done... Hah... Why was I the one to do that again?" Mary doubled over and put her hands on her knees.

"So I could get us some sodas." Tails handed a grape soda to her. Mary gulped it down quickly.

"Man, I think you need to sit down." Tails took Mary in his arms and spun his tails, flying her up the staircase connecting the basement to his house.

"Wheeeeee!" Mary was enjoying her ride.

The two made it upstairs, Mary was still panting slightly.

"Take me to the couch, driver." Mary laughed.

Tails landed and placed her on the couch. They sat and talked for a while, watching TV, allowing Mary catch her breath.

"So, whaddya' wanna' do know?" Tails turned to Mary.

"Actually I think I'll go home for a minute, I've got a ham in the fridge and I'm rather hungry." Mary got up and walked to the door.

"See ya later." Tails waved.

"Bye." Mary went out the door.

Tails turned back around and decided on an entertaining channel.


	10. En Route

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you can spot the Fallout 3 reference, cookies for you. It actually happened to me in-game! I died over nine-thousand times. SUPER MUTANTS, FERAL GHOUL ROAMERS AND A HOARD OF RAD-ROACHES AREN'T A VERY FRIENDLY BUNCH. Then again, neither is a madman torturing you! Poor Tails. By the way, the music is from Sonic Adventure DX whilst on the Egg Carrier. I always hated that song!

Chapter 10: "En Route"

Tails suddenly heard a high-pitched whirring outside.

He spun around and ran to the door. Grabbing his trusty, ever-reliable plasma-powered rifle from it's temporary place amongst the other clutter in the closet downstairs, the curious fox slowly opened the front door, rifle aimed at chest height.

What he saw, however, was surprising and scary enough to penetrate the courage of someone whom had once fought off over fifty gun-wielding thugs with nothing but a lead pipe and Sonic by his side. Tails watched the once waterlogged Egg-Carrier zoom away from the direction Mary was heading. Suddenly, Tails got that horrible music that played throughout the massive air ship stuck in his head as he hurried outside to his workshop to retrieve the X Tornado.

_I hope she's okay... Aww, I miss her already! _Tails thought to himself, smirking. _I guess the phrase "You don't know what you have until it's gone" applies here._

_Doo dooo doo du-daah doo-doo du-daah... Dooooooouaaaaaah..._

The horrible, almost alien sounding music – seeming fit for music on an elevator going straight down to Hell itself – was what drove Tails even harder. The Doctor, Doctor Robotnic, was so absolutely pleased with himself, snatching up his newest victim.

Simply at the thought of this music, Tails dazed off into one of his most unwelcome memories as he continued to run...

"_Don't you just __loooooove__ the music? Whohohohoho!" The Doctor laughed._

"_You bastard!" Tails, in his anger and pain, called the Doctor something that Sonic would definitely frown upon at the time._

_Then again, I think he could make an exception for this situation._

"_That music is gonna' kill me before you get a chance to!" Tails spat a gob of his own blood on the floor, covered in it already from head to toe. Bones poking obscurely from the underside of his skin, the limbs they once kept together hanging limp. Wads of bloody, tangled fur decorated himself – and the floor around him._

"_Oh, but it's just so catchy!" The obese scientist moved his finger to the faint trace of what could be a beat._

_Tails threw a long string of obscenities at the malevolent Doctor._

"_Oh, how rude! More power, Decoe!" The doctor roared in a most unpleasant way._

"_Yes, Dr. Eggman!" a tall, slim and gold-colored robot replied to the Doctor's requests._

_A painful tide of electricity rippled its way through Tails already mangled body._

_He was able to show no signs of pain, while at the same time silently screaming on the inside._

_Putting on a smirk, the years of hanging around Sonic had finally paid off, as his arrogant ego began to shine for what it had transformed into._

If I'm gonna' die, _Tails said amongst himself, _I'm gonna' put on a good show. I'm not the big wimp you've made me out to be, Eggy!

_Electricity was visibly irradiating around the unfortunate fox._

"_Is that the best you got, fatty?" Tails was holding his smirk the best he could whilst his consciousness was slowly slipping away, black spots biting at the corners of his vision._

"_Oh, through the years I've been called everything! Eggman has stuck for the most part, but I still get the occasional 'Robuttnic', 'Eggface'... Even simply 'Weirdo' on a few occasions," the Doctor continued with a frown, " But, surprisingly enough, not once had anyone ever insulted my weight straight out like that! I don't like that very much. Tails," the mischievous Doctor stared him in the eye from his floating pod, "Prepare to die!"_

_He looked towards his robot companions._

"_Bocoe, full power!" the obviously deranged man yelled at a fat, silver robot._

"_As you wish, sir..." Bocoe reached to pull the switch, when Decoe suddenly spoke up._

"_Hey, I wanna' pull it!"_

"_No, you had your turn," hissed the silver robot._

"_But it'll kill him! I wanna' do it!"_

"_No! Dr. Robotnic told __me__ to do it!"_

_The robots began wrestling lightly, each of them reaching and failing to flip the switch that controlled Tails' life._

"_QUIET YOUR NIMRODS!" Dr. Robotnic lashed out his frustration at the two bickering robots, "Now shut up, before I turn you into scrap metal!"_

_Seconds passed, and it seemed the two would stop, when they suddenly began yelling at each other again._

"_JUST PULL THE SWITCH TOGETHER!" the Doctor could hold his anger no more, "I JUST WANT THIS ANNOYING LITTLE TWERP DEAD!"_

"_Good idea, sir!" the robots seemed to say in unison. They pulled on the switch slowly, increasing the pain until Tails could hold back no longer. Tears erupted from his eyes as he cried out in pain, and Eggman smiled. His smile, his insane, deranged, twisted smile. That's what Tails remembered before falling into the sleep he thought would never end. The darkness with no way out. He hoped and prayed he would go to Heaven. He couldn't stop the black inching its' way into his vision. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. He couldn't hear. All that was left was..._

_Nothing._

_A place void of everything, its' greatest feature being Tails. The darkness was surrounding the poor fox, crushing him. There was nothing, he was nothing. Nothing was, nothing wasn't. It was just... Nothing._

_He opened his eyes. Everything was gone. He felt a great sadness, when suddenly, a light shone in front of him, slowly getting bigger. It was shaped like a door. Tails found he could breathe again, he was alive! But something was wrong. Wherever he looked, was nothingness. When he tried walking away from the door-shaped wedge of light, he couldn't move. He decided to head towards it, into the door that awaited him. Then he saw it._

_What awaited him was a beautiful landscape, filled with trees and clouds. The roads paved gold, numerous creatures floating about, wings welded to their backs. He noticed two figures ahead of him, standing just beyond the doorway._

"_Hey there, son." the first figure spoke to him._

_Tails did not reply, and instead began to sprint to the door, not wanting it to slip away._

"_Miles, honey," the second figure spoke up, "It's not your time"_

"_Go be with your friends," the first figure spoke again, "We know you can do it. You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for."_

"_It was nice meeting you, son." the second figure was now close enough to recognize, she was a fox, as was the first._

"_Mother?" Tails was at a loss for words as he continued to run to the door. No matter how close he seemed to get to her, the door kept moving back, just a few meters away._

"_That's right, Miles." the male figure smiled, "And I'm your father."_

_Tails started to twist his own tails, creating a propulsion effect as he rocketed towards the door._

"_Goodbye, son." his mother spoke, "I do hope you have an enjoyable life."_

_He reached the door only to find it was more like a portal, a rectangle cut into the nothingness. His mother and father were dressed in casual clothes, smiling ear to ear. They looked like he did, except for neither of them had his mutation. They both had single tails, swishing slowly behind them._

_Tails tried to enter the "door" to get a swift bump on the head. The door wasn't really a door at all, it was more like a window. He could see clearly through the doorway, noting that the backdrop was most likely Heaven. He had read books on the subject, studied numerous records of "spiritual encounters", learned about all there was to know about religion._

_He just hadn't practiced it that much._

_He silently made a vow to himself that he would see his parents again. He placed his hand on the invisible wall, it was rock-solid.  
"What do you mean bye?" Tails could only muster up a whisper._

"_You know you can't come in, Miles." his father's face was stricken with grief, "But I'm sure you'll find the way."_

"_Sorry. I do really wish that you could come with us." his mother said._

"_Don't worry, I will," Tails smiled, "One way or another."_

"_Well, it's time for us to go now." his father turned around and walked away, hands in his pockets, whistling a tune._

"_Bye." Tails waved at his father as he disappeared – literally._

"_Goodbye, son." his mother walked towards where his father had disappeared and she eventually disintegrated into the air._

_Tails suddenly found he was crying, his tears dissipating into the nothingness below him. The window that was cut into the darkness began to get dimmer, until it was the same as the rest of the nothingness._

_He was floating, and he was back to being in the nothingness._

_Sonic had told him about what happened next, about how he had come in just in time to stop the tragic, angst-ridden death of his oldest friend. How he had cried for hours on end before Tails had finally woken up. How Sonic got revenge on the Doctor, destroying his lab beyond repair. It was, quite successfully, the worst day of both of their lives. It had taken what felt like decades – actually being only a mere few months – before Tails was ready to fight once more. But that was when Dr. Robotnic had disappeared, not to be seen again._

Until now.

Tails broke free of the day-mare and was surprised to find that he had subconsciously prepped his plane and pulled onto the runway, checking its' newest addition: A high-power laser cannon, more powerful than that of the Egg Carrier's. Tails was glad he had decided to instal the weapon weeks before.

_I won't let it happen to her! _Tails was mad now, as he thought of the numerous things he would do to the Doctor. _I'll break every bone in your body if you place once fatty finger on her! Just as you've done to me._

_That is a promise._


	11. Insert battle related title here

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, we've come a long way since chapter 1. Now, your reading this story wasn't for nothing, as you get to read a bit of action! Will Tails kick the crud out of Doctor Robawtnic? Will Mary be okay? Will I ever stop asking these dumb questions and let you read? Maybe... Okay, fine!

But, anyway, sorry for the lack of updates, you see... I'm just lazy. No excuses this time. I've been thinking too much about what's gonna' happen AFTER this chapter, and I've been writing on those some. I haven't really gotten my priorities straight yet... What? Stop staring at me! :C

Chapter 11: "Insert battle-related title here."

"Oh, goody! Here he comes!" the Doctor squealed with delight.

"What should we do?" Bocoe asked.

"Well... Hmm..." Eggman thought for a moment, "I was waiting for him to get here... Show off my new prize, maybe." he turned toward Mary, who was encased in a hard, round glass sheath, "Then again, I could blow him up and have some nice fireworks."

"Tails is gonna' kick your ass even harder if you try that!" Mary crossed her arms and looked very confident.

"Oh, really?" the Doctor turned to Bocoe, "Fire all of our missiles. Make sure we don't miss, or it'll be your head... Again."

"Yes..." Bocoe gulped, "Right away, Doctor."

He pressed a series of buttons, firing hundreds of missiles into the air.

"This will be very fun to watch, indeed!" Dr. Robotnic turned his pod around to face a large LCD monitor. It fizzled to life, showing a large group of missiles headed for a white craft. It would be near impossible to dodge all of them. Mary stared, dumbfounded at the immense firepower the Doctor had.

Tails groaned, "I'm too damned tired to be doing this..."

He piloted the X Tornado with incredible skill, using the plane's automatic rifles to destroy any rockets he couldn't evade. He activated his cloaking device and did a backwards loop to get behind the remaining missiles and fired one of his four AIM-120 AMRAAMs at them. The last of the rockets were destroyed in the large explosion.

"Welp, looks like you need more missiles, Doctor." Mary grinned inside her cage.

"Oh, do shut up." Dr. Robotnic frowned, trying to figure out if he had any more homing rockets to fire, but to no avail.

"Sir?" Decoe spoke up from a chair next to Bocoe.

"What is it?" the Doctor sounded annoyed.

"The front-end laser is operational. Work was completed on it yesterday." Decoe hoped so, at least.

"I wish you would've told me this earlier," the Doctor faced his floating pod at him, "It's too late to turn around now. We wouldn't have enough time," he pressed a button on the chair's dashboard, "Oh, what was I saying about your head again, Bocoe?"

"Oh n–" the Doctor fired a metal ball from the front of his pod. Bocoe's head flew into the far wall, springs and screws clanking against the hard metal floor.

"Now, Decoe, I hope you'll be good." he turned back around and continued pressing buttons on the table in front of him.

"Yessir!" Decoe quickly looked away.

"Is that all you've got?" Tails voice crackled over the radio.

"Hello, Tails!" Eggman cackled, "Coming back for more? I guess the torture wasn't enough, then."

"Oh, you!" Tails replied, "Always making your guests feel welcome!"

"Hi, Tails!" Mary's voice echoed inside her confinement.

"Hey Mary. How ya' doing?" Tails responded.

"Fair, I suppose."

"Give me all the Chaos Emeralds or your girlfriend here dies." the Doctor interrupted their conversation.

"Well, I'm not really his girlfriend," Mary smiled, "We haven't gone on a date yet!"

"How about a movie?" Tails asked her, "After I get you outta' there?"

"I'll buy the popcorn!" Mary chukled.

"And I'll be Sonic the Hedgehog." the Doctor huffed, "Land on the flight deck and give the Emeralds to the awaiting robot or I gas her! You have one minute."

"Let her go or I blow the ever-loving shit out of you," Tails laughed, "You have ten seconds."

"Hah!" Eggman scoffed, "I'd like to see you try!"

"Uh... Sir?" Decoe spoke softly.

"WHAT IS IT NOW?" the Doctor spun in his chair and screamed at the robot.

"...Uh... S-sensors indicate that there are multiple nuclear anomalies aboard Tails' plane..." Decoe twiddled his thumbs, "Probably... Some type of warhead..."

"And a bad-ass laser that's more powerful than yours." Tails gloated.

Dr. Robotnic, self-proclaimed mad scientist, his main goal being to control all of the planet, actually started to sweat.

"Release the prisoner!" he spun around and began pressing buttons and moving levers.

"Good boy," Tails spoke up, "Now go back to whatever rock you crawled out of."

"Whee!" Mary screamed as the floor under her opened. She flew down a series of tubes and metal slide-type objects, "This is awesome!"

"Gah!" the Doctor looked ill, "I dropped her off the bottom of the ship!"

"...Well. It's a good thing my jet is fast, then?" Tails flew the X Tornado under the monstrosity that was the Egg Carrier. He saw a bright light amid the dim glow from the setting sun, with Mary just below it. He pushed open the canopy and slowed down to a crawl, just enough speed to keep the plane in flight. He maneuvered the jet onto a collision path with Mary, in an attempt to catch her. She flopped into his lap, smiling profusely.

"Oh yeah!" Mary shifted her weight onto Tails' other leg to turn around to look at him, "That was fun! Let's do it again!"

"You sure are the adventurous type." Tails put his arm around her and turned the yoke with his left hand.

Tails quickly landed the X Tornado on a grassy hillside, overlooking the beautiful forest. The sight was spectacular, with the sunset shining off the ocean – located past the forest – at the perfect angle. Tails could see his house, laying peacefully on a large cliff overlooking the ocean, maybe fifty yards from the edge. Next to his house was the runway, fake palm trees lining the sides. They didn't have very many palm trees in this area of Mobius, it was actually Sonic's idea. He had a strange love of the beach, but yet hated water. He had recently gotten over it, as Tails had taught him to swim better. There was a large inlet in the center of the forest, leading down to a large, tropical, floral-covered crater containing more trees than the forest around it. Big, after all these years, still stayed in a small hut in the center of the crater. He and his pet frog, Froggy, would go fishing every-other day in the large lake that ran off from the mountains behind where Tails had landed. The water continued off the side of the cliff he lived on. He had installed a small dam that he used for power. The rushing water beat against large fans that spun a generator. To the two's left was the city area. The planet of Mobius was a very easy-going place. There were no countries, few laws, and everyone spoke one language, Mobian. Somehow, many other galaxies shared this language, for example the second Earth that Sonic was currently on spoke a language very similar to Mobian. They called it English. They had so many languages and customs on that planet. Such a divided place was prone to war. Mobius didn't even have a military, only small police forces scouted about the planet, simply because no one usually, if ever, fought on Mobius for other than for sport. Mobius had what that called 'regions', which were like states on Earth. The city region closest to Tails' house was named after it's founder, Michaelson City. The city was bustling with activity, cars speeding in all directions but up. Tails enjoyed the peace.

He reached up and put his arm around Mary.

"This sunset is way better than a movie." he whispered.

"It's so pretty!" Mary's eves were shining.

"I come up here sometimes just to, ya' know, get away from it all."

"It's peaceful."

"The point."

The two watched the Egg Carrier hurry away, heading for the sea, as the sun went down completely.


	12. Purple Goop

AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you that thought there'd be more action than that were right; there's gonna' be WAY more action... Just read this chapter. And, yes: I am lazy. Your fears are true, loyal viewers! Oh, and give a shout-out to 1Past and Present1, she recently lost a friend. Go and send her a kind message, I think she needs it... Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 12: "Purple Goop"

Mary yawned, "I'm tired! Can we go home?"

"Yeah, it's getting late..." Tails helped Mary up.

The sun had gone down and the grassy hillside was basked in the eerie glow of the rising moon.

"Gee, I suppose it's too late to eat that ham, huh?" Tails turned around and walked towards the plane.

He got to the X Tornado, jumped on the wing and turned around to pull Mary up, being a gentleman and all. He saw Mary laying flat on her back where they were lying before.

"Uh... You coming?" Tails crossed his arms, waiting for her answer. When none came, he started to get worried.

"Mary?" Tails flew over to her.

Mary's eyes were wide open, the whites of her eyes a deep royal purple, her irises invisible.

Tails had seen this before; years ago on that horrid day when he was tortured, the Doctor sprayed some purple chemical on him while he was still in his chains. It had driven him insane, creating hallucinations, muscle spasms, passing out at random intervals and purple eyes.

Tails picked up Mary and carried her fireman-style to the plane, where he carefully set her down in the rear seat. He strapped her in and flipped a few switches on the side of the cockpit, causing all of the miscellaneous buttons lining the area next to Mary's chair become inactive. He closed the canopy and prepared the engines.

"Cows... We have cows..." Mary was sitting as straight as a pole, staring into the night sky.

"Need to... Prepare... Tornado analyzer..." She passed out again, breathing heavily.

Tails took the plane the mile from the hillside to his workshop in mere seconds, just as fast – if not faster – than Sonic himself. He reopened the canopy and picked Mary up again. She started thrashing wildly, yelling unintelligible phrases as he jumped off the wing of his aircraft.

"YOU'LL NEVER GET ME ALIVE! WHERE'S MY CUP?" Mary screamed, punching her fists in every direction.

"Mary, calm down. It's okay!" Tails looked into the purple pools that represented her eyes.

"...Buh?" Mary stopped hitting him.

"We'll get you your cup later." Tails led Mary into the house by the hand, "Now come on, you're sick and I need to treat you."

"CAAAAAAAAAANDY!" Mary blurted. She fell onto her face.

"This is gonna' be a long night..." Tails carried Mary to his underground base, through a catacomb of doors and hallways, finally reaching a door with a big red cross on it. He shoved the heavy door open and laid Mary on the awaiting hospital bed. Tails used a pair of straps on the side of the bed to secure her arms and legs and then went digging through a cabinet marked "Antidotes".

He pulled out a vial of clear, slimy liquid and stuck the needle of a syringe through the cap.

"Hold still, Mary. This won't hurt a bit." Tails tried to calm the drowsy vixen down.

Mary simply mumbled as Tails injected the contents of the syringe into her arm. Her eyes soon returned to their natural color.

Tails released the straps and sat in a near by chair. He waited for hours, thinking about a complicated mathematical algorithm to pass the time, occasionally glancing at a small monitor that displayed her vital signs.

Mary awoke with a start, sitting up quickly, eyes darting around the room. Seeing Tails sitting in the far chair made her relax a bit, but she was still scared.

"What's going on? Where'd the hill go? Why does everything look purple? Why does my arm hurt?" Mary looked like she was about to cry.

"It's okay, Mary. Nothing's wrong," Tails gave her a reassuring hug and stoked her head with his free hand.

"Guh... I feel like I just died after eating a truck-load of metal ball-bearings..." Mary laid her head on Tails' chest.

"You got poisoned by Eggman, but I gave you the antidote." Tails kept holding her.

"Why is everything purple?" Mary blinked a few times.

"That should wear off in a minute."

"Where am I?"

"My makeshift medical facility."

"Why does my arm feel like it was just crushed by a house?"

"The antidote causes a reaction your nerves recognize as pain."

"...Why the hell do I suddenly want a Kit-Kat?"

"Long story short, you went crazy." Tails let go of her, "Now, what'd he do to you?"

"Well, I was walking to the train station, and all the sudden this robot thingy comes out of nowhere and sprays me with this purple goop-y stuff. It got in my eyes and my mouth... Boy, it tasted horrid!" Mary shuddered, "Then I woke up in a glass tube in time to hear Eggman gloat about capturing me."

"At least you weren't in bondage." Tails tried to smile, but failed to work his muscles correctly.

"Oh yeah... He got you... And..." Mary saw how glum Tails looked and changed the subject, "So I'm okay now?"

"Yeah, you're fine." Tails stood up, "Now, we have some work to do."

"Whaddya mean?" Mary followed Tails out of the room and numerous hallways, taking note of the security cameras, pad-locked doors and other strange locking mechanisms.

"On the way back, the X-Tornado picked up a few somethings on the radar. I didn't take enough time to get a good look at it." Tails pushed open the final door that led to the subterranean hangar.

"Maybe it's Eggman?" Mary watch Tails enter a code into a small keypad next to the door. He placed an ungloved hand on a metal plate on the other side, a loud beep confirming his identity. The door clicked.

"Okay, you ever work one of these?" Tails handed the small pistol he carried around with him to Mary.

"Yup." Mary cocked the gun and aimed it to her left, checking the sights.

"This is mine." Tails sauntered in an "I'm so cool" kind of way over to a metal gun case located a few steps away, in the corner of the large room. He again placed his ungloved hand on an outlined section of metal on the case, making the door swing open. He replaced his glove and pulled out a large chaingun from the case. He put on a metal backpack, holding two large battery-looking objects. Finally, he screwed a cable from the backpack to the gun and struck a pose. "Muhahahaa!"

"The evil guffaw was a nice touch." Mary giggled, "So, what's gonna' happen?"

"Well, they were probably just a few drones to inspect the damage," Tails armed the weapon with a "cha-chi" sound echoing throughout the base, "But, just in case, we'd better go out firing."

"...Really?" Mary was frightened. "So they might attack?"

"Most definitely so!" Tails grinned like a maniac.

"Well, they can't get us down here, can they?" Mary looked at the large, thick, metal door that stood in the way of the stairs leading to his house, "Not with that door... Right?"

"Oh no, they'll get through that easy. Even the drones" Tails kept his grin.

"...Okay..."

"So, first of all..." Tails jogged over to a small terminal next to the main door. He pressed a few buttons and entered a password, and suddenly the whole room was filled with red light. A klaxon alarm blared over a megaphone, and a computerized voice said, "Warning! Lock-down initiated! Clear all doorways!"

Loud metal thumping echoed through the base.

"Rooms one through fifty locked down!" The computerized, monotone voice droned on.

More noises.

"Rooms fifty through one hundred locked down!"

The counting and the banging continued until the voice boomed, "Hangar door reinforcements locking!"

The large hangar door located past the Blue Typhoon had a protective, ten inch thick metal slab slide slowly over it, making a clunk as it collided with the far wall.

"Hangar door reinforcements locked down!" the voice said, "Activating gravity shield and main door lock-down!"

A whirring, electrical zapping sound could be heard through the ceiling, as could more metal clanking. The main entrance had a metal sheath slid downward over it on both sides.

The siren ceased its' incessant blaring and the room returned to its' bluish-white, bulb-lit color. The whirring continued.

"...Wow." Mary walked up to Tails, "So we're safe now?"

"Probably." Tails sat down on a near by chair and simply waited, his gun aimed at the door.

Mary followed suit, sitting in another chair, hunched over with the gun dangling from her hand.

"We'll see." Tails mumbled.


	13. Classic Blood 'n Gore

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Radda radda radda! I 'dunno where that came from... Just enjoy this chapter. Things blow up and go boom.

I was going to continue with this chapter, but one: I know the last chapter was a real cliffhanger, and I wanted to get the next one out ASAP! But now look what I've done... It's another cliff hanger...

:D

REVIEW! NOW! PLEASE! WHY WON'T MORE OF YOU PEOPLE DO IT?

I just checked this story's stats, and I have a total of almost 20,000 hits from INDIVIDUAL users and over 100,000 visits from people once-over. Come ON people! Only 12 reviews? I ALLOW ANONYMOUS REVIEWS!

PLEASE!

Just leave a little comment. It doesn't even have to be a review, just a 'lol' or something to let me know I'm doing it right.

Do it.

Chapter 13: "Classic Blood 'n Gore"

The shields were holding strong, explosions and gunfire could be heard coming from the surface. Mary was occasionally nodding off, almost dropping her only line of defense many times. Tails was staring at the door, listening intently to the war above them.

"Hey, want a smoke?" Tails suddenly announced, pulling a small cardboard box from his tail.

"Uh, I don't smoke any more," Mary frowned, "You do?"

"Well, these aren't your average cigarettes." Tails flipped open the box, "They're completely devoid of anything harming to the body."

"No way," Mary crossed her arms, "I don't believe it. I've seen you do some amazing things, and I've seen you trick people."

"Trick you? All the sudden you don't believe me?" Tails suckled on the tip of a plain-looking cigarette he took from the box, "Its true. These cigarettes are made up of some pretty hush-hush chemicals, some natural herbs and artificial flavoring."

"...No, I'm not going to listen to you. I don't want to get hooked again. No." Mary shook her head.

Tails grabbed a lighter from atop a near-by bench and lit the miracle cigarette.

"How can you smoke?" Mary looked a mixture of sad and angry, "I nearly died from lung cancer and you can sit there with that silly smug grin on your face, smoking a cigarette?"

Tails blew a cloud of smoke at her. She unintentionally breathed it in and expected to start coughing, but what she smelled and tasted were...

"...Oranges?" Mary completed her though aloud.

"Yep. As I said, artificial flavoring." Tails took a drag off the flavored cigarette, "It also contains agents that soothe and relax you just like nicotine. And, the best part is, it's non-addictive!"

"Give me one. Now." Mary reached for the box.

"Whoa, slow down there girl!" Tails scolded Mary and retracted the box out of her reach, "First, you have to choose a flavor."

"Whaddya' got?" Mary looked anxious.

"Orange, grape, apple, cherry, blueberry, lemon, banana, all the previous with '-pie' added to the end of them, licorice, black licorice, light nicotine, classic nicotine, hard nicotine, rum-slash-beer-slash-scotch, and cake."

"...Do the nicotine flavors contain nicotine?" Mary bit her lip, expecting hims to say yes.

"Nope, just flavoring. It's non-addictive, but it tastes damn good!"

"I'll take hard nicotine!"

Tails handed her a white cigarette with a black stub and the lighter he'd used. Mary lit up and took an incredibly large suck off it. She blew it out in rings and shuddered in pleasure.

"Oh, Tails!" she laid back in her lawn chair, "It tastes even better than my old cigarettes!"

"I know, right?" Tails smirked and inhaled the sweet orange aroma he had grown to love so much.

A loud explosion rocked the cliff. Bits of rock and metal fell from the ceiling.

"What the fuck was that!" Mary sat bolt upright, her trigger finger twitching nervously.

"Well, it's time for some fun." Tails looked up and inspected the damage. There was a large hole in the roof.

"Fun? WE. ARE. GOING. TO. DIE." Mary was losing it.

"Feh." Tails aimed up and fired a whole clip at the hole. Numerous robotic parts fell from it. Because it was starting to get dark, Tails relied on the sound of crunching metal to know there was something there. The bright room made it hard to see. Eventually, after firing a whole five-hundred bullets in mere seconds, an E-194 robot came crashing down to the floor and caught on fire.

"Follow me," Tails said, surprisingly calmly. Mary followed him, her own weapon aimed at the robot. They had bigger problems, however, as more E-Series robots flowed at a steady rate from the hole. They all came to the ground with a heavy clank, spreading out in a line and dragging their fallen brother behind themselves. Tails and Mary were running for the door with the hand scanner. Tails quickly removed his glove and slapped the wall quickly. The door opened with surprising speed, allowing them both to get through without slowing down. The door slammed shut behind them. Tails spun around in the small hallway to view a color screen. The two foxes were too focused on running to notice the robots were firing at them the whole time, and the bullets could still be heard ricocheting off the door. The screen showed them approaching cautiously, firing large arm-mounted weapons. The damaged E-194 was struggling to stand as its' comrades repaired it.

Mary turned from the screen to Tails, "There's way too many!"

"I know, I know!" Tails sighed, "Let's just keep moving."

Mary didn't budge. She was staring at a large red blot on his arm that he hadn't noticed before. Tails reached up with the injured arm and felt it. He dabbed at it with his newly-gloved and inspected it. It was his own blood.


	14. MEDIC!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: RAAAAADAAAAH!

Lol. Enjoy. Review. Whatever. I get tired of asking for reviewers. You people are lazier than I am.

EDIT: Spelling mistake. Sorry if you think this chapter is too "drastic" or too "unrealistic". I don't give a care.

Chapter 14: "MEDIC!"

"Huh," Tails pondered, staring at his stained red glove, "Didn't expect to get hit so soon."

He sighed and continued jogging down the hallways, "I guess I'm getting a bit sloppy."

Mary didn't know what to say. She didn't want to let Tails down by showing that she was truly scared. It obviously didn't bother him the slightest he'd been shot, but it bothered her something awful.

_ we're gonna' die ohmyGodohmyGodohmyGod..._ Mary's thoughts were only to follow Tails... And worry about him at the same time.

_This is insane. How can he see the sight of his own blood seeping from his arm and have no fear? How can he keep running like that, carrying a fucking chaingun with a wounded arm? He's been tortured, probably shot at-slash-shot many times before, that's how. He's hardened. I'm not, I'm just a lowly pizza-delivery girl with a boring life. I'm not fit for this! I like Tails and all, but this is just too much. I can't stay here. I have to get away! I don't want to die!_

"Mary," Tails stopped running, "Do you know you think out-loud sometimes?"

"Huh?" Mary frowned. Had she said all that?

"Oh, and by the way," he continued running, "You won't die as long as I'm not dead already. So try and keep up, will you?"

Mary blushed a scarlet red matching the same shade as the blood gushing from his arm.

"I'm worried about you, Tails. Shouldn't we head for that medical room place?"

"Naw, I'll be alright."

"You sure?"

"Yep. We're almost there anyway."

"Where are we going?"

"Escape pods."

"Like in the movies?"

"Yep."

Mary thought about all the cool action scenes in the movies she'd seen before, with cars, planes, high-tech devices, spy gadgets, giant robots, flying escape pods. She'd always wanted to have a life like the people in those sci-fi movies... But now that she did, she wasn't sure she wanted it to stay that way. There was always a happy ending in movies and video games. In the movies, the guy-slash-girl got the girl-slash-guy and vice-versa, there was a big explosion, the bad guys died and everything went back to normal. In video games, if you died, you could just as easily hit the "RESET" button or choose the "Try Again" option on the pause menu.

_But_, Mary thought to herself, making sure she wasn't talking out loud, _There's no reset button in real life. If you die, you die._

"Hey Tails," Mary pondered, "Where do you go when you die?"

"Well, somewhat a bad time..." Tails stopped and pressed himself to the wall, peering around it. There was a large E199 with tank-treads rolling past the H-shaped hallway. Tails spun around and put a few hundred nine-millimeter holes into it. It dropped the the floor and exploded, metal chunks flying everywhere. "Do you believe in any religious things?"

"Well, my mom was a devoted Catholic–"

"Don't believe that shit," Tails said quite plainly as the continued running. Mary fired a few rounds into the robot when it's gun malfunctioned, firing a high caliber bullet into the wall.

"Nice one."

"Thanks."

"Anyway, Christianity is the way to go. It's the closest to the real thing that you'll find."

"'Real thing'?"

"Yeah. As in God."

"Oh... So... You didn't answer my question."

"I'm about to tell you something so one else has ever known," Tails slowed down to a fast walk, "So listen up. I'm not going to repeat myself. When I was tortured, about to die, held upright by some metal chains, being electrocuted to death, I passed out. When I woke up, all I saw was nothing. So then all the sudden I see my parents and Heaven. They say a whole lot, how much they love me..." Tails kept his back to her the whole time, but Mary could tell he was crying, "Then I wake up again in a hospital bed. Eggman is gone, whoopiddy-doo. Basically, what I'm saying here is that not only do I have hard evidence that God and Jesus Christ exist, but I've had my own 'spiritual encounter' per-se, when I met my parents. Who are dead."

Mary couldn't think of anything to say.

_So all that stuff about God is true. I have to believe Tails, he's the smartest guy this side of Mobius. He teleported me to another galaxy. He has a gender switcher. That means that I'll go to Heaven then..._

"Thanks Tails, I feel a little better now."

"What were you feeling bad about?" Tails picked up the pace.

"Well, if it's just nothing after you die. I don't think I could live with that."

"You wouldn't live with that. You wouldn't be conscious."

"Shut up. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah..." Tails pointed his gun at a few doors to their left, "This is it."

"Cool! I finally get to ride in an escape pod!" Mary jumped up and down a bit, a silly grin plastered on her face, "It's been my life-long dream!"

Tails pressed two buttons next to two out of the remaining ten doors. The metal chambers clunked as the doors opened, showing a metal box about half the size of an elevator.

"Get in and we–" A hail of gunfire erupted from the other end of the hallway. Mary instinctively jumped into the pod. The door closed automatically. A bullet made its' way through the door before it closed. It bounced around and found a home in the button that launched the pod. Without any way of firing it or opening the doors, the robots were sure to get her.

Deciding it was safe to get up off the floor to avoid any more stray bullets, she slowly rised and peered out the window. She was shocked to find it was artistically decorated with splatters of blood. She checker herself to find no remnants of bullets or the pesky holes they leave behind. She hadn't been hit... And expected the worst. The window was shaped like a sphere, so that if she put her head in it, she could see out. The window was also slightly disfigured from bullets impacting it. It was obviously bullet-proof. Feeling it was safe enough to do so, she looked out.

Tails was slumped on the ground, his back to the wall – or rather what was left of it. There was so much blood covering him Mary couldn't tell where one bullet hole ended and the next began. The robots were approaching carefully, as he was still cradling his minigun.

"TAILS!" Mary screamed, hoping that he wasn't already gone.

"Hi, how you doin'?" Tails looked up and struggled to speak. His face was grief-stricken, covered in blood itself.

"OH MY GOD! TAILS, ARE YOU OKAY?" Mary was hysterical.

"Oh, I'm fine," Tails smirked with what little power he could muster up and retorted flatly, "I'm just heading over to grandmas for some milk and cookies."

_He's gonna' be fine! Don't worry! Stop worrying!_ Mary couldn't hold back her tears, _Don't cry! Be strong for him! Be strong..._

"I'll be back, Tails! I know, I'll get Sonic and... And Shadow! Yeah! I'll get the whole gang, and we'll rescue you! A-and..."

"Mary," Tails smiled, "It's okay. I know I'm gonna' die."

"...What?" Mary was wide-eyed.

"I've been wanting to die for a long time... Mostly for my own selfish desires, such as wanting to meet my parents," Tails frowned, "But I didn't want to off myself or anything, if that's what you're thinking. Really, it's more like I accept it, not so much want it... Ah, I'm rambling."

Sparks flew from the wall next to her. The pod filled with smoke as it slowly lifted.

"Bye!" Tails remarked cheerfully. Mary didn't know if he was talking to the robots or her, as he brandished a large block of C4 and pressed the green button on it's side.

The pod broke through the malfunctioning doors at the top of the shaft. The rocket mounted to the bottom sputtered and rattled as she flew through the air. The shaft the pod came from belched a cloud of smoke, fire and debris.

_Tails... Is dead._ Mary couldn't get it. How in the course of one day could Tails' life simply be halted? She never knew Eggman to be the killing type.

_Tails was such a cool guy! He didn't deserve to die, _Mary thought to herself, _Well, maybe he's alive! Tails is strong. He could of taken cover! Yeah... Like I'll just keep believing that! No one could of survived that..._

The pod was almost vertical now, arching to it's destination. Mary was sobbing now, lying on the side of the pod that was now perpendicular to the ground. The top of the pod was aimed at the edge of the Mystic Forest. Mary moved her body around so she was now standing on the top of the pod. Suddenly, the pod jerked to a slower speed. It landed cleanly and without any sound on the soft grass. The door flew open, smoke billowing out of it. Mary just now realized she was coughing fiercely as she stumbled out of it. The smoke burned her eyes.

She laid on the ground and sobbed into the green grass for a time.

Thinking she could cry no more, Mary sat up and looked around. The pod was now on fire, a parachute burning on the top of it. She was on the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins, a trail showed the way back to the city. Mary got up, retrieved her pistol from the smoldering wreckage of the pod, and took a big drag off her heavy-nicotine-flavored cigarette that she was surprised to find her mouth was able to hold on to all this time.

She sprinted down the beaten dirt path.


	15. Fox Got Guts

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Auuuugh I am so lazy raaaaaaaagh I so didn't want to do this nyaaaaah.

Anyway, we left off with Tails being... Well... Deadified, Mary being sad, and stuff blowing up.

Woo...

...

...I want to talk for a minute, if you've got the time.

Am I getting the setting wrong? On the Earth in Sonic X about halfway through the third season (I think), the Mystic Forest gets Chaos Control'd into the human world. Or is it just the floating island? Or both? And on Mobius, is the floating island... floating? Or is it in the ground? In Sonic Adventure, the island looks like it was ripped from the Earth. Is this because it was Chaos Control'd, or was it always like that? If the floating island wasn't Chaos Control'd, how'd it get to the human world? Did the Mystic Ruins / Forest ever get put back on Mobius? Or were they always there? Were the Mystic Ruinz / Forest ever Chaos Control'd in the first place?

Buh, if you can, just help me with the history here. Sorry for the big wait on this chapter, I'm addicted to Garry's Mod. Oh, and Sylox, I can't fix grammar issues I have no knowledge of. Tell me what to fix and I'll get right on it.

LETS JUST IGNORE THE FEW MONTHS I HAVE BEEN INACTIVE.

IT NEVER HAPPENED.

MEN IN BLACK MEMORY ERASER GO!

*FWOOOOSH*

And another thing.

Since it's been so long and for the fact I've changed a few chapters around, I recommend going back over the other ones.

WAIT NO IT HASN'T BEEN A LONG TIME *FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

ALSO *FWOOOSH* YOU DIDNT SEE ALL THOSE SPELLING ERRORS.

Chapter 15: "Fox Got Guts"

She heard snoring.

Loud snoring.

Mary was heading through the rock tunnel leading to the floating island Tails had told her about.

She wondered why the island looked so ancient, so desecrated. It held the remnants of some sort of broken-down structure. Inside the relic was a large emerald larger than she was, and the red echidna guarding it. He was sitting on the ground, leaning against the shimmering green stone and, upon closer examination, was the source of the sound.

Mary hurried up the stone stairs and shook Knuckles awake.

"Guh... What is it, Tails?" Knuckles was rubbing his eyes and stretching lazily. He didn't seem to be alert enough to see that he had identified Mary wrong, nor to ask why her fur had specks of blood on it.

"My name's Mary, and Tails is probably dead." Mary was stone-faced, devoid of any emotions.

Knuckles stared.

"So? You coming or not?" Mary spoke monotone.

"Uh," Knuckles had a dumbfound look on his face.

Mary sighed and led Knuckles by the hand down the stairs and headed back the way she'd came, all the while explaining the course of events of the day. The only response she got from the echidna was the occasional nod or inane stammering of his total bewilderment.

They reached the pod, with Knuckles still trying to figure out what had happened.

"Okay, so Eggman attacked, Tails got shot then blew himself up, and you escaped in this weird... metal... pod thingamabob?" Knuckles counted these things off on his fingers.

"Yeah..." Mary sighed. She felt like she was going to cry again, despite Knuckles funny lack of knowledge about the escape pod.

"Well, that does sound like something he would do." Knuckles shrugged, "Ever since 'the incident', he's been reckless, a real shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy, doesn't really give half 'a shit about anything..." Knuckles looked disgusted suddenly.

"You know, I've seen that a bit in him," Mary agreed, "But when he's around Sonic, or me for that matter, things are fine. And before all this stuff," Mary gestured to the pod, "started happening, he was pretty happy."

Knuckles smirked, "I'm not much of a shrink, but I've really only seen Tails truly happy when he's with Sonic or building something in the garage... Methinks he might be smitten."

"Well..." Mary couldn't think of the words to describe her feelings.

"So, I was right?" Knuckles chuckled to himself.

"Maaaaaaaaaybeeee..." Mary twiddled her thumbs.

"Heh, well now's not the time to be discussing it." Knuckles remarked.

"True..." Mary frowned.

"So, what do we do now?" Knuckles asked.

"We rally the troops, go in there and see if Tails is... Y'know, still alive..." Mary stuttered.

"Follow me," Knuckles said as he led Mary through the forest to a ladder leading up the side of a stone wall. They entered what seemed to be an abandoned mine, leading to the train station Mary had failed to reach. They got to the entry platform, the greeter stammering a "hello" as Knuckles and Mary boarded the awaiting train. He was probably surprised at the fact that Mary was covered in blood and was holding a pistol, or that Knuckles hadn't left the floating island in a very long time, but Mary couldn't be sure.

They sat down and said nothing as the train sped to its destination, the center of the city.

The train arrived, the doors opened.

A few policemen were blocking their way out.

"Hey, you!" one of the police officers called to Mary, "Drop the gun!"

"No." Mary stated as she quickly pushed her way through the circle of policemen.

The police entered their vehicles as Knuckles and Mary sprinted down the usually crowded sidewalk; the pedestrians were flocking to the other side of the street, seeing the gun in Mary's hand.

"Shadow usually stays on the roof of this building," Knuckles remarked as he effortlessly punched the metal door off its hinges. They entered through the doorway into the decrepit apartment building, homeless people and miscellaneous small animals scattering to get out of the way.

The police cars screeched to a halt outside the building as the policemen jumped out and followed the two into the building.

Knuckles smashed through a second door leading to the stairs and bounded up them, Mary having a hard time keeping up but was determined to.

Half of the police units went up the stairs after them, while the rest took the mangled elevator.

Knuckles reached the rooftop first, with Mary following, out of breath.

"Knuckles," Shadow called, "I haven't seen you around in a while."

"Shadow..." Knuckles was doubled over, trying to catch is breath, "We need your help."

"Where to?" Shadow asked.

"Tails... Place..."

"Let's go." Shadow got up from his seat on the metal air duct and grabbed a Chaos emerald from its' place on a beat-up plastic table. He placed his hand on Knuckles' shoulder as Knuckles took Mary's hand.

A blinding green light captured the three for a moment.

The police officers bustled through the door, bewildered as the three disappeared.

"We lost them," one officer spoke into a microphone mounted to a Velcro strap on his shoulder.

The green light faded.

Suddenly, they were standing in a small bush in front of Tails' house. Eggman's robots were crowded around it, infrared eyes scanning the area. They immediately spotted Shadow, who hadn't taken the effort to hide behind the bush.

Shadow waved his hand, large balls of energy erupting from it.

All of the robots, all eight of them, exploded in the same green light and caught fire, all before they had a chance to dispense their weapons.

Shadow turned around and asked Mary, "May I please have that?"

Mary reluctantly handed over her only line of defense, somewhat glad that Shadow was taking the point of leader.

Shadow kicked open the door of Tails' house, dispatching the other robots running about the room.

Knuckles walked over to the hole in the ground.

"I can get us down there," he said.

"Wait," Shadow whispered.

Mary looked through the hole into the underground area and noticed a few lingering robots were looking around, seemingly bored with the remedial task of guard-dog.

Shadow fired the remaining bullets in the magazine of the pistol, the robots falling to the ground, one even exploding.

"Hold on to my ankles," Knuckles said as he leaned through the hole and bashed his fists into the ceiling. Mary and Shadow followed suit, grabbing his legs as instructed. Somehow, Knuckles' namesakes kept them from falling, as he had thrust them deep into the concrete above them.

Knuckles effortlessly maneuvered around the hole over to the Blue Typhoon.

Shadow dropped onto the ship with a soft clank. Mary let go, but found that landing gracefully is a skill she didn't have. She landed with a thump, flat on her back.

"You know, if it wasn't for the viscosity of this situation, I would have actually laughed." Shadow said, grinning slightly.

"Good to know," Mary groaned as she sat up.

Knuckles landed nearly on top of her, making her yelp with surprise.

"Sorry." Knuckles removed his spiked cleat from it's embedding, the few inches it was to the left of her leg.

"Oh, it's fine!" Mary, fed up with the day's challenges, remarked with anger, "It's fuckin' fine. You know, after being shot at, nearly blown up, and almost choked to death by smoke, I don't think this day could possibly get any better with a smashed leg! Oh, and I can't forget that Tails is probably dead while Sonic is off fuckin' some whore!"

"Quiet," Shadow commanded from in front of her.

Mary took a hit off her cigarette to try to calm herself down.

"Down there," Shadow pointed to another tank-treaded robot heading for the Blue Typhoon.

"I got him," Knuckles slapped his fists together and jumped off the side of the ship.

_SMASH!_

"Come on!" Knuckles yelled at them, "We don't have all day!"

Mary looked down to where Knuckles was to find the remains of the robot. Its' parts were strewn all over the floor.

Mary slid down the metal siding and landed on a small embankment on the side of the craft.

She vaulted over that, to find a second one.

And a third.

And a fourth.

Finally, after the fifth, she landed on the concrete floor of the basement. Looking up, she realized how incredibly high up she was.

Shadow jumped off the side and slid down a hanging wire connected to the Blue Typhoon and the wall somewhere. At the last minute he jumped off it and slid down the wall to where Mary and Knuckles were standing.

"Show-off," Mary remarked.

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all day." Shadow bowed to an invisible crowd with a smug grin on his face. "After you."

"Gladly," Mary laughed.

The three made their way to the escape pod area, smashing a few robots on their way there.

Upon arrival, Mary inspected the area.

The walls were charred, chipped in some places, the other pods all but destroyed. The doors to them were lying about the hallway, a few still somehow limply hanging on their hinges. There were small remnants of the robots that had been there earlier, Tails' blood splattered the walls.

But no other signs of Tails.

Mary took the next corner, and surprisingly enough, there was Tails, leaning against the wall.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here," Tails grumbled.

"You guys!" Mary yelled behind her back, "I found him!"

Knuckles rounded the corner and gasped.

Shadow just crossed his arms and stood there.

"So, you fella's gonna' help me any time soon?" Tails said, his voice weak.

"Can we move you?" Knuckles ran over and crouched next to him.

"We can take the X-Tornado," Tails mumbled as Knuckles picked him up.

"Oh no we can't." Shadow remarked, "You're in no shape to pilot that thing."

"Uh, I can..." Mary said.

"Can't you get us out of here, Shadow?" Knuckles asked, seemingly ignoring Mary.

"Sorry, the emerald's all worked out," he replied, "It'll take a while for it to recharge..."

"Uh..." Tails tried to intervene.

"...I've never use only one emerald for three people before, I know not to do it again."

"What are we going to do?" Knuckles wondered.

"HEY." Tails yelled, coughed a few times, then continued, "Mary can fly."

"Who?" Shadow asked.

"Hello?" Mary gestured to herself, "Over here?"

"Oh," Shadow frowned, "I didn't know your name."

"Let's go, already!" Tails commanded, "I'm dyin' over here, more than literally."

They ran toward the hangar.


	16. Intensive Care Unit

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hahah Renard Queenston reference. Also lol British words. I probably used them incorrectly lol. Lolololol lol lol ololol.

Chapter 15: "Intensive Care Unit"

"_Oh, come on!" the Doctor grumbled, "What is the point of all this? Just hand over the Chaos emeralds and that new, secret project you've been working on, and I'll call it a day."_

"_How about you go fuck yourself?" Tails spat._

"_I am your host…" Dr. Robotnic walked over to where Tails was chained, "You should treat me with more respect."_

_WHAP._

_Tails smashed the Doctor's nose with his forehead._

"_Ow." Eggman stumbled slightly as he walked back to the control panel._

_He pushed the switch up a little bit more and pressed the "activate" button._

_Tails already knew what was coming, the flicker of electricity, the pain. He'd already felt it many times today. But he wasn't expecting the pain to be so…_

…_Painful!_

_The pain was so intense he could barely keep conscious. He wrangled with the chains that had somehow gotten caught around his neck, literally hanging him from the bleak metal ceiling. His neck felt like it was going to snap like a toothpick. The room started to spin, faster and faster, as he lapsed into the darkness…_

Tails awoke with a start, alarmed to see that there were numerous people surrounding him. For a moment he was still stuck in his vivid, surreal dream scape, his mind registering the people as enemies. He tried to move, to get away from them, but found he had no energy. Slowly, he regained consciousness, realizing he was in no danger after all. As his vision cleared, he silently took note of his surroundings. It looked like he was in some kind of medical surgery room, in which he guessed was the Hyneman hospital, the biggest hospital in all of the city. The greatest hint was the fact the walls were painted a light lime green color, the standard shade of the hospital.

One of the doctors removed a bullet from his spinal cavity near his neck.

_Ow!_ Tails flinched, _No wonder I was in so much pain._

The surgeon noticed Tails' movement and immediately dove for the tube that delivered the knock-out gas. Tails, with his free arm, quickly reached up and grasped the doctor's hand with more power than he thought he had. The doctor looked down at Tails, a mere carving of his former self, and took pity on him.

Tails shook his head no and, contrary to normal procedure, the doctor resumed his work.

_Hurts like hell, but I can handle it… _Tails thought to himself, _That gas is bad for the brain._

Tails grumbled quietly as the surgeon cut into his chest cavity…

Tails awoke again to find the surgeons were gone.

He painfully sat up and looked himself over.

_I look like a fuckin' Halloween pumpkin…_ he thought to himself.

"Tails?" Mary awoke from her position in a luxurious lounge chair stationed next to his bed. He noticed it looked like she had been crying.

"Oh, hi." Tails said, cheerfully.

"Are you okay?" Mary asked.

"Fine."

"Can you move?"

Tails tested the motion of his limbs. Thankfully the bullets had mainly hit him in the chest, so his arms had full mobility.

"All good."

"Good…" Mary paused, "The doctors said they were surprised you weren't already dead…"

"I'm fine, Mary," Tails peeled off his covers and swung his feet over the side of the hospital bed.

"Tails," Mary commanded, "Get the fuck back in that bed."

"We got things to do, Mary," Tails stood up slowly, testing his legs, "People to see."

"No, we aren't going anywhere." Mary stood from her chair and eased Tails back into a sitting position, "You've got four holes in your left lung, two in the right, five broken ribs, three fractured, one shattered, your liver is only ten percent there, you're missing most of your blood, you have twenty-five percent less skin than you did yesterday and on top of that the scabs haven't fully completed their work, so you still have holes in your flesh, your spine is fucked up, your foot is half-broken and you have influenza."

"I'm surprised my heart is intact," Tails mused.

"You… don't have a heart anymore," Mary said, reluctantly, "They had to… replace it… with a robotic one."

"Oh, cool!" Tails smirked, "I've always wanted one! Thanks, mom!" he got up and removed the IV drip from his arm.

"Miles, sit down!" the same surgeon he had seen before came running into the room, Tails could tell because of his messy hair.

"Hey, Mary, you seen my watch?" Tails ignored the doctor to notice his prized technological feat had been removed from his arm.

"Tails," Mary scolded, "If I give it to you, will you sit back down, please?"

"Fine…" Tails sat down.

Mary removed the watch from it's place in the side-table drawer and handed it to him.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" the doctor had a slight British accent, which was funny, because there was no United Kingdom on Mobius.

He was also human.

"...Do I know you?" Tails asked.

"Doctor Renard Q. Davidson, at your service," he bowed slightly. "Now sit your rear back on the bed."

"I swear I know you from somewhere," Tails thought out loud as he lay back down.

"If your wondering, I'm related to Dylan, whom I understand asked you to come to this universe."

"I knew it!" Tails snapped his fingers, "How is Dylan?"

"Oh, he's fine," Renard said, "I haven't the slightest where he might be, so don't go on asking."

"How did you get here?" Tails said as he fiddled with his watch.

"Well, I followed you and Dylan when you took him through that portal thingy. I'm surprised you didn't notice me."

"I am too." Tails pressed a button and the strange, floating, blue pane appeared.

"Yeh, so then I went around town, talking with people, learning your people's culture." He sat in Mary's chair, "Quite interesting, really. After I had my fill, Dylan let me stay at the hotel room 'ey had got somehow. Neither of us had any of your planet's money, so I had to work arse over tip as a lorry driver for some food market company. Then, I had to take a trip to a community uni, just to prove I wasn't bobbins! Can you believe that load of rubbish?"

Mary was lost on the strange words he used, but Tails seemed to understand.

"Well, PhD's do exist on this planet as well." Tails tapped a few times on the floating box, a blue aurora surrounding him.

"What are you doing there?" Renard asked.

"Oh, you know," Tails mumbled, "Undoing all of your oh-so-hard work."

The aurora completely consumed him. It was so bright, Mary and Renard both had to turn away.

"Okay, what?" Mary said.

"No… Idea," Renard responded slowly.

"Well, he's Tails, crazy things like this are required."

"You should of seen some of the cack he did back on Earth. Bloody amazing, honestly I understand about bugger all of it."

"Buggy what?"

"Bugger all!"

"What?"

"Nothing! I understand nothing of it, you prat."

"I have no idea what you're talking about…" Mary felt exasperated.

The glow disappeared, and Mary wasn't very surprised to see Tails as he had looked before; the holes in his complexion were gone, his fur restored to it's shiny vigor, his strength returned.

"Right, let's get to it." Tails jumped up with renewed energy, "Bye, Renard. Give Dylan my regards."

Mary reluctantly followed him out the door, looking back at the shocked face of the doctor.


	17. Fighting, Nostalgia and Flying, Oh My!

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

…

Y halo ther.

…

Been a while, huh?

Well… Not really. Just a week… Or two… Or… Three…

Anyway, I've found a new addiction… Minecraft… _

Also, a man in the "kōkutsu-dachi": .com/photos/32278247N00/2874548482

"kōkutsu" translates roughly to "looking back" or "back long", "dachi" meaning "stance".

I bet anyone that still reads this hates me for taking so long O_o

Chapter 17: "Fighting, Nostalgia and Flying, Oh My!"

Tails mashed on the floating panel, hitting buttons and typing things in with a small, portable keyboard floating in front of him.

He never ceased to impress Mary, whether he knew it or not.

They exited the hospital at a fast pace, causing alarmed spectators to jump out of the way. Tails tapped his watch, the blue panel disappearing, the keyboard disintegrating in a bluish haze.

Tails led Mary across the hot parking lot, heading for the very edge of it. The X-Tornado flew itself to an open area of space and landed.

"Well," Tails muttered as he slowed down, "What an… enlightening experience."

"What do you mean?" Mary looked at him.

"In the course of how few days? Like, four? Five?" Tails coughed slightly, "In all true honesty, they've all kinda' blend together, this past week… Anyway, so first I met you, then you barfed on my shoes, we had some pizza, flew around a bit, picked up Sonic, your every-day shenanigans…"

"Maybe for you, eh?" Mary chuckled, then blushed slightly, "You forgot the part where we made out, remember?" She walked closer to Tails.

"Uh… Yeah, uh-huh." Tails quickly looked down and blushed.

Mary giggled at Tails' shyness.

"Don't forget the part where you were abducted and poisoned," Tails looked up, a frown replacing his red cheeks, "Then I was shot – multiple times – and here we are now."

"I'd rather not go though all that again," Mary shook her head.

They walked in silence for a moment.

"Mm, I remember, the first time I woke up on your couch," She shrugged, "I had some serious doubts. If I wasn't so determined about seeing things through like I am, I probably would have left right then and there."

"So, the only reason you're here right now is because you're a determined person?"

"Yep. I thought you were insane."

"Oh really?"

"I still do."

"Well, I can't deny it."

"Har har."

He stopped, contemplating what she said for a moment. "You know, lots of people have actually said that to me."

"No shit?" Mary chuckled, "That's 'cause it's true."

They were almost to the X-Tornado by now.

"Hm," Tails mumbled.

"Anyway, onwards." Tails continued walking.

More silence.

"Are you sure you didn't stay because of my immense manliness?" Tails wondered with a hint of sarcasm.

"No," Mary looked a skinny, only slightly-muscular Tails over, "I really doubt that." A smile played on her lips, "In fact, I bet I'm stronger than you."

"No way!" Tails stopped.

"Yeah, way." Mary crossed her arms.

"Wanna' go a round?" Tails grinned.

"Uh, how about no?" Mary frowned, "You just got out of a hospital for crippling injuries."

"Do I look crippled?" Tails chuckled, gesturing to himself.

"Well, no, but still. I don't want to test it."

"I won't take no for an answer," Tails said, stopping in his tracks, taking fighter's stance.

"…Seriously?" Mary asked in disbelief, "You really want me to fight you?"

"Yeah! Bring it on! Sonic said I needed to get some more CQC practice, so why not?"

Mary stood there, debating her options.

"Hey, you can heal yourself or some crazy shit like that, so I suppose bruising you up a bit won't do much of a difference."

"Awwright!" Tails pumped his fist, "Let's go! Come on, let me see what ya' got."

Mary took a moment to collect herself. Then, she slowly slid her legs into the "kōkutsu" stance; her right leg bent behind her, her left straight forward. She calmly, smoothly raised her hands to her sides, imitating the "shiko" stance.

"Tails, did you know," she started to speak as she slowly raised her hands to complete the "kōkutsu-dachi", "I am, in fact, a brown belt in karate?"

"I've forgotten who it was was that brought karate here," Tails thought, lowering his arms slightly, "It was a while ago though. I think his name was Dye-Itchy or something…"

"Ishikawa Dai'ichi?" Mary said in near-perfect Japanese, as she transitioned to multiple stances, "I trained with him. He taught me everything I know."

"Did you know he was a four-dan?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, he told me." Mary took up "kōkutsu-dachi" again.

"I tried to learn, but I'd just rather shoot thi–BWAH!"

Mary kicked him in the face with the tip of her right shoe.

The kick didn't even seem to phase him.

Tails lunged forward, catching Mary in the stomach with a fist. But, at the last minute, she bent backwards and clenched her abdominal muscles. Tails' fist just bounced off her. Mary gave a quick jab to his face with an open palm. He stumbled backwards, quickly regaining his balance.

Mary took a deep breath, then ran to Tails. He attempted to block her incoming right high kick with his arms, but the kick never came, and instead she folded her leg and brought her left knee to a pressure point on his chest.

Tails doubled over, gasping for air. Mary brought her elbow down on the back of his neck, hard.

He fell to the ground, his arms trying and failing to support his weight.

"Okay," he said, drowsily, "I give. You're stronger."

Mary offered her hand to help him up.

Tails gazed at her hand for a moment, seemingly apprehensive.

"Oh, come on," Mary chuckles, "Grab my hand, you big baby."

Tails groaned and wearily accepted, prepared for some kind of super-secret-judo-karate-mega-awesome-killer-hand-throw-thing, but was relieved to find Mary easily picking him up and smiling.

"Whew, that was–" Tails started to say.

"An enlightening experience?" Mary cut him off.

"Well," he scratched the back of his head, "Yeah."

"Can't stand to be beaten by a girl?" Mary said, stressing "girl".

"Oh, do shut up." Tails said, pushing her lightly as he vaulted onto the plane's wing, "It was just an insignificant little sparring match."

"No, you shut up," Mary accepted Tails' hand, "I kicked your ass, you insane little fox."

After Tails lifted Mary onto the wing, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"So, this is how relationships work out?" Tails pondered, "There are fights, but then the two make up?"

"Well, usually," Mary let go of Tails and jumped in the rear seat of the plane, "But sometimes it's just hot sex. You never can be too sure."

"You wouldn't be suggesting we be the latter?" Tails grinned, stepping into the cockpit.

"Uh, no! No, not at all… Never." Mary blushed a deep shade of scarlet, tripping over her words, "Well, not never, I mean, sure, it's bound to happe– Uh, I–I mean…" She put her head in her hands, "Ugh. I need to do shut up."

"I was just kidding," Tails closed the cockpit and took off, onlooking pedestrians shocked.  
A few minutes into the flight, Mary spoke up as they neared his home, "I don't want there to be an awkward silence, so…"

"'So, what?" Tails circled around the complex.

"I didn't mean to say that."

"Say what?" Tails grinned, unnoticed by Mary.

"Y'know, what I said before…"

"What did you say before?"

"Uh…"

"You mean when you dug yourself into a hole," Tails tried his best to hold back a laugh, "With a sign next to it that said you wanted my sexy body?" He let himself a chuckle, throwing a fake suave tone on his voice.

"Dammit, Tails!" Mary crossed her arms, blushing even more than before, "That is not what I said!"

"Yes," Tails landed on the runway, "It was."

"It was not! I was merely saying that it happens to everyone eventually."

"That's not what I heard," Tails was laughing harder now. "You can face me in mortal combat but you can't admit your mistakes? Bad form, miss!"

"Oh, fine!" Mary grumbled, "So maybe I said it was possible and-or would happen eventually. So fuckin' what? I'm not saying I want to have sex or anything."

"Your mind says no, but your heart says yes!" Tails laughed, reopened the cockpit and leaped out.

"Okay, okay! Enough," Mary looked around, "What are we doing back here? Wouldn't Eggman station more troops or something?"

"Likely, but I know what to expect now." He tapped on his watch.

"So, are we just going to go in and get shot at again?" Mary slid off of the wing to stand next to Tails.

"Or have hot sex, maybe?" Tails leaned over and laughed.

"I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?" Mary sighed.

"Probably not."

"Greeeeeat, just great. On top of being shot at, I'll be pestered by a five-year-old at the same time."

"Well," Tails shrugged, "What can I say?"

"How about, 'I'm a huge douche'?" Mary slapped him on the back of the head.

"Ow, touchy!" Tails slinked away toward the garage.

"I really don't feel like dodging bullets anymore, Tails..." Mary reluctantly followed him.


	18. Taking Out the Trash

AUTHOR'S NOTE: POOP LOL

Chapter 18: "Taking Out the Trash"

"Shield..." Tails pressed a second button on the watch, "Activate!"

A luminescent light enveloped them both.

"Oh, cool!" Mary grinned, "Let me guess, these things block bullets and shit?"

"Correct," he chuckled, "Not sure why someone would want to throw feces at me…"

Mary laughed, but then a thought crossed her mind, "And you didn't use these things before because why?"

"Well, I didn't have enough power, for one," Tails pressed a button on the wall of the garage, "The watch regenerates power over time."

"On it's own?"

"Totally."

"Excellent," Mary watched the metal door raise, "How long do they last?"

"At the current power level..." Tails glanced at his watch, "Approximately three hours."

"Oh, good," Mary followed Tails into the garage, "Maybe we won't get blown up now."

"Yup." Tails pressed a big, red button on the inside wall of the garage with a balled fist.

The entire floor began to descend into the ground, continually gaining speed. Yet, Mary didn't feel any air rushing around her.

"Weird," Mary observed, "I don't feel like we're moving."

"Shield cancels out g-forces and airflow. Filters through oxygen."

"Fancy!"

They arrived at the bottom a few seconds later, two doors soundlessly opening to reveal the underground hangar. They both stepped out, Tails pressing the button again before exiting. The doors slid back together, seamlessly conforming to the concrete wall. Mary ran her hand over the area the doors filled. She couldn't find a single crack.

"The walls reconfigure their own atomic structure and stick themselves back together," Tails spoke over his shoulder, "Like the doors were never there."

"Maybe why there's no robots guarding it?" Mary noticed the few robots in the room were loitering about the stairs into the house and the door leading into the catacombs behind the cellar.

Tails tapped on his watch a few times, causing a small pistol to appear in his hand. He fired at all the robots, somehow disabling them all with pinpoint precision. He then pressed another button on his watch, causing the unmoving hunks of metal to disintegrate, the same blue haze that enveloped his keyboard a while before now sucking the robots up. The blue balls of energy disappeared into the watch's face.

"The watch can absorb matter and transform it into a few units of usable energy," Tails walked leisurely over to a control panel, "And considering only one unit of energy is regenerated every ten minutes, that's saying something."

The screen flickered to life, Tails immediately tapping on the keyboard. Mary remembered this was the terminal he had stationed himself at before.

"PASSWORD OR GTFO N00B:" The terminal stated. Mary couldn't help but giggle as she read it over Tails' shoulder. He quickly typed in "(6VB–k7t–6sd4UI8760–np9Gklfuri–rTYOFr76ER–RtyF618h4S)".

"That's a long password," Mary gaped at the string.

"Yep."

"How do you remember that?"

"Dunno," Tails pressed enter, "I just always did."

"MAIN MENU", the terminal read.

"1. Power Grid"

"2. Offense/Defense Wep."

"3. Security"

"4. Other"

Tails pressed the two key then the enter key. The screen cleared for a moment before new information appeared.  
"1. AA Rkt"

"2. AA MG"

"3. AT Rkt"

"4. AT MG"

"5. Rkt Drone"

"6. MG Drone"

"7. AI Rkt"

"8. AI MG"

"9. Prime Landmines"

"0. More..."

Tails pressed the zero key.

"1. EMP Blast (10 GW/s)"

"2. EMP Blast (2 TW/s)"

"3. Nuclear Blast (1 PW/s)"

"4. Thermonuclear Blast (10 PW/s)"

"5. Thermonuclear Blast (1 EW/s)"

"6. Thermonuclear Blast (1 ZW/s)"

"7. Thermonuclear Blast (1 YW/s)"

"8. Thermonuclear Blast (50 YW/s)"

And, in a deep red, unlike the bright white of the rest of the text,

"9. Detonate Power Cells (estimated damage: 326,184,967,056 YW)"

Mary couldn't even speak. She knew most of the abbreviations of the Metric system, the main system that Mobius used, and she knew that the abbreviation YW meant "yottawatt". The only people to have ever posses a nuclear weapon would be the Kaleigh School for the Gifted, a school for people with insanely high IQ levels. A group of eight students had created the bomb for a school project. They had released this information about a year ago.

Mary thought back. The bomb that the students had made had the explosive power of twenty kilotons of TNT...

_Twenty TNT kilotons are 20,000 tons of TNT exploding. That's a lot of damage… _Mary though quickly, _20,000 tons is roughly equal to… 83670000000000 watts per second. That divided by 24 is 0.00000000008367 yottwatts per second. …Man, that thing could destroy the entire planet!_

"You're thinking out loud again, Mary" Tails remarked as he pressed the two key.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Yeah." Tails switched off the screen with a small button on it's side, "You might want to… You know, not do that?"

"Shut u–" Mary was cut off by a loud explosion, nearly sweeping her of her feet.

"Whoa," Mary remarked at the sound, "What was that?"

"EMP," Tails walked over to the door leading to the catacombs. It was wide open.

Mary looked inside the door and saw multiple weapon-bearing robots lying on the floor, twitching slightly.

Tails pressed a button on his watch, absorbing all the robots in the hallway and the ones in the cellar itself.

"Yeah, that was cool," Mary smiled.

"Thank you, thank you!" Tails bowed, "I'll be here all week."

Mary laughed as he headed back to the control panel and switched on the screen again. This time, he selected the fourth option, "Other", causing a new screen to draw.

"1. Shutdown Systems"

"2. Reboot Systems"

"3. Repair Corrupted Files"

A line separating the texts stretched to the ends of the screen.

"4. Restore Home"

"5. Restore Underground 1"

"6. Restore Underground 2"

"7. Restore Underground 3"

Tails pressed the three, two, four, five, six and seven keys, in that order, and then tapped the enter key.

The screen cleared and redrew with a status bar, "0% COMPLETE".

As the two waited, the percentage slowly went up, until it finally reached "100%".

Suddenly, the lights went out.

"Ohwhathefuck." Mary looked around, surprised. She could barely see a thing, the hole in the ceiling providing a small circle of light.

"Wait for it…" Tails held up his hand.

The lights came back on, buzzing.

"You could of warned me, you ass!" Mary fumed.

"Scared of the dark, are we?" Tails smirked.

"No, it just surprised me to death!"

"Oh, you're fine."

"Ugh…"

"Now," Tails pointed at the hole, "Watch, and be amazed!"

The blue haze enveloped the hole, patching it with concrete and dirt.

"Wow, really?" Mary gazed, open-mouthed, "That really is amazing."

"Okay then, now that that's all done," Tails walked over to the stairway, "I'm going to go take a nap. I feel horrible."

"What's wrong with you?" Mary followed, "And shouldn't we be preparing for Eggman or something?"

"Naw, he's probably just about shat himself now that all of his robots are down," Tails opened the trap door into his now restored home, absorbing the few robots at guard there, now lying on the floor, "He'll probably just be scoping the place out for the next few days. I'd advise you not to go home, but I can't tell you what to do."

"I'm not leaving," Mary accepted Tails hand, pulling her out of the hole in the floor, "You have guns."

"Good choice," he walked upstairs, "Help yourself to the fridge."

"Have a nice nap."

"Will do," he closed his door behind him.

Mary made herself a sandwich, sat down on the couch and watched an episode of _The Mastermind_ on the television.


	19. Sandvich

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, this sure has been going on for a long time.

I should totally update more…

…

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Yeah, right. Like that could happen.

I r so lazy ;c

See my epic crying face?

;c

It's so sad.

Chapter 19: "Sandvich"

Mary looked out the window at the rising sun.

In such a short time, she'd been on a dangerous adventure – well, was still taking part in a dangerous adventure, flown a high-speed jet fighter, been poisoned, held captive by a homicidal manic, shot at, shot at again, infiltrated a heavily-guarded area, and plenty more she was too tired to remember.

After a while, Mary got the idea Tails was taking more than just a nap. She could hear him snoring from all the way downstairs. After turning off the television, the house was eerily quiet, besides the buzz of the shield systems. Not being able to fall to sleep, she decided to use this time to think about what had come to pass.

Tails was insane, that was for sure. He was unafraid of death, running into battles like he did. It could be because he could heal himself. Maybe, after all this time, relying on all his gadgets, he felt invincible. Suddenly Mary remembered something Tails had told her, right before she was shot out of his complex in an escape pod...

"_Mary," Tails smiled, "It's okay. I know I'm gonna' die."_

"_...What?" Mary was wide-eyed._

"_I've been wanting to die for a long time... Mostly for my own selfish desires, such as wanting to meet my parents," Tails frowned, "But I didn't want to off myself or anything, if that's what you're thinking. Really, it's more like I accept it, not so much want it... Ah, I'm rambling."_

...She suddenly had the urge to talk to him.

Mary lifted herself from her semi-recline on the couch and walked upstairs. Tails stopped snoring.

Walking to his door, she lightly tapped on the door.

"Hey, Tails?" Mary inquired, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Tails replied, somewhat drowsily, "Sure."

She opened the door slightly, "Sorry if I woke you."

"To be honest, I'm surprised I've slept this long," Tails wondered as he glanced at the clock sitting on his side table. It displayed "2:09am" in the stereotypical bright red letters of digital clocks.

Turning on a lamp on the same table, Mary could see more of the room. There were numerous framed photos of himself from what looked to be when he was younger. There weren't many from recently, she devised. The room contained his bed, which was very large, his side table, the pictures, the lamp, the clock, a closet and bathroom, both doors open, a small chair and a personal fireplace. The fireplace smoldered and popped quietly. On the far wall was a bookcase of lots of books, possibly hundreds, Mary guessed.

For just waking up, Tails seemed surprisingly alert, almost undetectably scanning the door behind Mary and his surroundings. Always so paranoid.

Mary walked into his room, sat on the edge of his bed.

"I couldn't sleep," Mary frowned.

"We all have times when we can't sleep," Tails sighed, "Some more often than not."

"What, do you not get enough sleep?"

"Well, I try, but you know," he shrugged, "Always thinking. It's good that I slept as long as I did."

"How much sleep do you usually get?" Mary leaned over on his bed, propping her head up on her arms.

"Eh," he thought for a moment before answering, "Maybe four hours a night?"

"Jeeze, and I thought I needed more sleep."

"Yeah…"

"You know I came up here to ask you something," Mary quipped.

"I guessed as much," he sighed.

"Okay, well…" she bit her lip in anticipation, "Remember when we were in the basement, and the robots, you know, blew you up?"

"Yeah, what's up?" he sat up, attentive.

"You said you knew you were going to die, and didn't mind, and… stuff," Mary trembled, thinking of the scene, "Why?"

"Did I not tell you?" he laughed, "It was a ruse for the cameras so he would think I really did explode or something. The man lives for drama."

"Oh," Mary thought, "Well that makes things easier."

"I know, right?" Tails laughed again, "You'd think I'm suicidal or something."

"I had some doubts," she sighed, "But thanks for clearing that up."

"Hey, Mary?" he called to her as she turned to leave.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

She pasued.

"I mean, for everything."

"What do you mean?" she sat back down on his bed.

"I mean," he searched for the right words, "Well, for being here, I guess. I haven't had this much fun in a while," he smirked.

"...So your idea of fun is being shot at?"

"On occasion."

"Okay." she chuckled, "Any other time I would of thought the opposite. I mean, I won't say I wasn't completely terrified, but it was enjoyable, on some level."

"Well, time to get up, then," he grumbled as he unfolded from his covers.

"You aren't going to try to get any more sleep?" Mary said, feeling concerned.

"Naw, got stuff to do," he walked into his bathroom and shut the door.

"What kind of stuff?" Mary flopped on his bed, making herself comfortable.

"You know, stuff stuff."

"Stuff stuff stuff?"

She heard him laugh all the way from his bathroom, "Yeah."

"No, seriously."

"I was planning to do some work on generator three, it's been a bit off lately."

"Can I come? Maybe I could help."  
"I don't see the harm in it," Tails said, flushing his toilet in the process.

"Before we begin our trek, could I get a sandwich or something? I'm starved."

"I'm hungry too," Mary could hear the sink running, "In fact, I don't think I've had much to eat lately. I always eat and/or sleep on whacked out schedules."

"Let's get to it, then."

"Indeed," he emerged from his bathroom, started towards the door, "Shall we?"

Mary caught up with him and slung an arm around his neck, "And how are we today?"

"I'm feeling pretty good, that's a good thing."

Mary yawned loudly.

"Looks like someone's still tired."

"Eh, I didn't sleep much, spare a few times," she shrugged with her free arm, "Shit happens."

"I'll say. This week has been the most eventful in I don't how how long," they separated as they left his room and strolled down the staircase, "In a way I'm glad for the change in pace. Sitting around all day with pretty much nothing to do…" he paused, "Well, not nothing to do. Different than the usual."

"And the usual is smashing bad guys, I premise?"

"Well, yeah, actually. I enjoyed being a super-hero. You know, to a point."

"Besides being nearly killed on multiple occasions, I also premise?"

He paused as they reached the small kitchen, "Sometimes."

"You find joy in being blown to pieces?" She bent over and interrogated the food supply.

"I find joy in winning against others trying to blow me to pieces." he paused, "I suppose I lost the other day, hm?"

She paused her assault on his refrigerator, "You say it like it happens often."

"It does," trying and failing to avert his sight, he let his eyes drift to her, "Well it did a while back. Me Sonic, the others. We've all taken a plethora of bad things to the face: punches, kicks, uppercuts, pebbles, rocks, boulders, cars, boats, a yacht," he laughed, "Oh how that one was amusing, metal, brass and wooden slates, and slivers, usually from falling down, lots and lots of bullets, and a surprisingly large amount of more bullets."

"I don't much like bullets, well, when they're fired at me, that is," Mary remarked as she found the cheese, "So, are you enjoying the show?"

He paused, "Show?"

"Yes, staring at my ass."

"Oh come on," he felt himself blush, "How did you know that?"

"Because I am female and you are male," she found another appetizing food, "And all males are the same."

"That is a very large generalization,"

"You admitted to it, though. Most don't."  
"I'm an honest person."

"Are you honest enough to tell me you're still staring at my ass?"

He paused, "Yes."

"I see," the righted herself and carried and armful of products to the counter, "You didn't answer my question…"

"Question?" He tried to keep his composure.

"Yes, to the enjoyment of the show."

He paused again, "Is this a trick question?"

"Yes," she crafted her sandwich with great care, "And there is no correct answer."

"Oh, excellent," he scratched the back of his head.

"Well, now that you're done leering," she thought a moment, "Or are you?"

"Honesty?" he grimaced.

"Honesty."

"…No, probably not."

Mary said nothing as she returned the rest of the food the the refrigerator in the same fashion that she took it out.

He leered.

She picked up the plate she had made her sandwich on, grabbed her orange-flavored soda, and headed towards the basement entrance.

Tails smiled to himself as he followed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm going to take a new turn on the next chapter…


End file.
